how greenhouses work on other planets.
Confused? Then you’re just like plants in a greenhouse on Mars. No greenhouses exist there yet, of course. But long-term explorers, on Mars, or the moon, will need to grow plants: for food, for recycling, for replenishing the air. And plants aren’t going to understand that off-earth environment at all. It’s not what they evolved for, and it’s not what they’re expecting. But in some ways, it turns out, they’re probably going to like it better! Some parts of it, anyway. An artist’s concept of greenhouses on Mars. Right: An artist’s concept of greenhouses on Mars. [Larger image] “When you get to the idea of growing plants on the moon, or on Mars,” explains molecular biologist Rob Ferl, director of Space Agriculture Biotechnology Research and Education at the University of Florida, “then you have to consider the idea of growing plants in as reduced an atmospheric pressure as possible.” There are two reasons.
