The first thing Brazilian astrobiologist Rebeca Gonçalves remembers learning as a child was the order of the planets. Her uncle, an astrophysicist, also taught her all about the constellations dotting the night skies over São Paulo. “Ever since I was little, I have been in love with space,” she said.
That led to a career in space agriculture, figuring out how to grow food on other planets. She credits time later spent living among the Kambeba, , for her conviction that it is essential that she do more than explore distant worlds. She wants to preserve this one, too.
“It’s a very conscientious topic within the world of space agriculture science,” said Gonçalves, noting that “every single piece of research that we produce must have direct benefits to Earth.” That ideal makes her latest research particularly timely. She and a team at the Wageningen University & Research Centre for Crop System Analysis found that an works surprisingly well in the dry, rocky terrain of Mars.
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Their findings, in the journal PLoS ONE, have obvious implications for the possibility of exploring or even settling that distant planet. But understanding how to grow crops in the extraordinarily harsh conditions on other planets does more than ensure those colonizing them can feed themselves. It helps those here at home continue to do the same as the world warms.
“Peopl.
