Ruben Figueroa |
Madrid (EFE).- When humans colonize Mars they will base their diet on vegetables, garden vegetables but also microalgae, and will reserve for holidays the intake of fish and poultry raised on farms, animal proteins that will account for approximately 4 % of the Martian diet.
This is the assumption made by Laia Ribas, a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Higher Center for Scientific Research (ICM-CSIC), an expert in sustainable aquaculture and who for three years has been studying the possibility of developing fish farming on Mars.
In an interview with EFE, Ribas addresses how humans could feed themselves on Mars and highlights the importance that aquaculture would have compared to the breeding of terrestrial animals, although in volume the basis would be provided by vegetables.
Martian aquaculture
“They invited me to design a city on Mars for a million inhabitants and to think about how we could supply these people with food. I suggested doing Martian aquaculture and we were studying the amount of water and fish we needed, and it is true that fish have many advantages to the detriment of other land-farmed species,” he says.
The food system projected by Ribas to feed this city – named Nüwa – is based fundamentally on vegetables, 50% from orchards and 20% from microalgae, which “grow very quickly and are very nutritious, too. for the fish,” explains the scientist.
Animals raised on Mars, such as fish and chickens, make up 4% of this system, while 10% are insects, 1% other living organisms and 15% animal protein from laboratory-grown meat, continues Ribas, indicating that this modality would be very feasible to carry out there.
The water of Mars
The basis of everything is the water on Mars, which is found at the poles, frozen, and also in layers below the surface, and which would have to be used in a circular way, to be able to reuse it, regardless of the way it is used. engineering to extract it, since it is a limited resource, says the expert.
Herein lies one of the advantages of “Martian aquaculture”, since the fish water is “relatively easy to filter” and favors this circularity, since it will then be used to water the plants, and these plants will feed on again the fish, etc., comments the CSIC member.
Another support for betting on fish farming is that they are species that live in water, which is an environment that already simulates the microgravity that exists on Mars, which is approximately 30% of that on Earth. abounds
Water also protects fish from solar radiation, “which on Mars is very high,” continues the researcher, compared to what would happen with other terrestrial animals.
It also highlights the greater nutritional value of fish and the fact that to generate fish meat “between 5 and 20 times less energy” is needed than if it is mammals.
Studies in embryonic phase
Ribas conducts his research with zebrafish, a “model fish” widely used for experimentation in science, and studies how gravity affects it.
In a settlement on the red planet, fish species that have greater tolerance to salinity would have to be raised, “because from what is known, the water on Mars has high concentrations of salt,” the scientist details, although she highlights that it is not He knows even more about the composition of the water there.
The researcher was able to advance this approach during her participation this year in the Hypatia I mission, which simulated the living conditions on Mars in the Utah desert (United States) and in which several scientists from different disciplines took part with the aim of give visibility to women in science.
However, she emphasizes that studies on “space aquaculture” are still “in a very embryonic phase”, because although the first approaches began in the 70s, currently only she and a researcher from France who investigates aquaculture on the Moon are working on this topic.
“There is still a lot to do (…) And that is why it caught my attention and I thought that my research could contribute something to this fascinating world of space,” he says.
Furthermore, he emphasizes that these studies help “to think about and design efficient and effective systems” with fewer resources, which will serve to “advance more sustainable aquaculture on Earth.”
