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A team of world-class scientists will grow potatoes under Martian conditions in a bid to save millions of lives.

Press Releases

Lima, Peru, December 18, 2015: A team of world-class scientists will grow potatoes under Martian conditions in a bid to save millions of lives. The experiment, led by the International Potato Center (CIP) and NASA, is a major step towards building a controlled dome on Mars capable of farming the invaluable crop in order to demonstrate that potatoes can be grown in the most inhospitable environments…

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March 8, 2017 — Lima (Peru) The International Potato Center (CIP) launched a series of experiments to discover if potatoes can grow under Mars atmospheric conditions and thereby prove they are also able to grow in extreme climates on Earth. This Phase Two effort of CIP’s proof of concept experiment to grow potatoes in simulated Martian conditions began on February 14, 2016 when a tuber was planted in a specially constructed CubeSat contained environment built by engineers from University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Lima based upon designs and advice provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Ames Research Center (NASA ARC), California. Preliminary results are positive..

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Blog Post

An experiment conducted by researchers at the International Potato Center (CIP) to determine whether potatoes could be grown on Mars not only produced encouraging results for proposals to put people on the Red Planet, it also provided valuable information for CIP’s efforts to help farmers produce food on this planet’s marginal lands…

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What is CIP?

What is CIP?

There are over 4,000 edible varieties of potato, mostly found in the Andes of South America. Potato is the third most important food crop in the world after rice and wheat in terms of human consumption. More than a billion people worldwide eat potato, and global total crop production exceeds 300 million metric tons.

The International Potato Center, known by its Spanish acronym CIP, was founded in 1971 as a root and tuber research-for-development institution delivering sustainable solutions to the pressing world problems of hunger, poverty, and the degradation of natural resources. CIP is headquartered in Lima, Peru and has offices in 20 developing countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. CIP seeks to achieve food security, increased well-being, and gender equity for poor people in the developing world. CIP furthers its mission through rigorous research, innovation in science and technology, and capacity strengthening regarding root and tuber farming and food systems.

CIP is part of the CGIAR Consortium, a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources. Donors include individual countries, major foundations, and international entities.

Crop of the future

Crop of the future

 

 

The soil in La Joya Pampas-a sector of the Atacama Desert in southern Peru that’s considered one of the driest places on earth-is very similar to that found on the Red Planet.

The scientists plan to transport 200 pounds (100 kilos) of it to a CIP laboratory in Lima that will simulate the complex Martian atmosphere-which contains mostly carbon dioxide-and expose it to extreme ultraviolet radiation.

“We’ll have more concrete results in one or two years, Valdivia said, adding that it will take more than five years to launch an unmanned mission to Mars. The potential future space crop is also one of the oldest.

Records of potato cultivation date back to 2500 BC, when the indigenous Aymara Indians farmed it in modern-day Peru and Bolivia. If the varieties selected for next month’s experiment don’t adapt to the desert soil, the researchers will introduce nutrients and subject them to radiation.

The Team

The Potato on Mars team is a cross-disciplinary cohort of CIP and NASA scientists representing the fields of agriculture,
plant breeding, astrobiology, medicine, and physics. Together they are exploring how to grow potatoes on Mars while simultaneously benefiting Farmers of Earth.

Julio Valdivia-Silva
Geobiologist & Researcher, NASA Ames

Jan Kreuze
Sub Program Science Leader, Integrated Crop and System Research, International Potato Center

Melissa Guzman
Researcher, Planetary Science and Astrobiology, NASA Ames

David Ramirez
Associate Scientist, Integrated Crop and System Research, International Potato Center

Christopher P. McKay
Planetary Scientist, NASA Ames

Walter Amoros
Senior Research Associate – Crop Improvement and Genetics, International Potato Center

Potato facts

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