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(ISS), and secondly, on the planet Mars' surface - which complement themselves.
The human objective for Mars is its colonization for all nations' use, and it
will only be satisfactorily accomplished through the union of the space agencies,
research centers, universities, governments, and people who can contribute and
efficiently work for this future, possible, and viable manned Martian exploration
and, ultimately, colonization (de Morais 2004 ).
To achieve that, the future international manned exploration of planet Mars will
require some independency of food and oxygen supplies to the crews on Mars.
Vegetables and resistant microbes, growing inside secure vessels on the Martian
ground, are the best candidates for supplying a quasi-continuous production of
proteins, salt minerals, liquid water, and oxygen to the astronauts working in a
semipermanent possible future living facility at Mars' surface (de Morais 2004 ).
To colonize Mars, it is necessary to change its atmosphere (mainly composed by
carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) at very low pressure) into one more similar to Earth's (with
oxygen at higher pressure), to be more habitable by humans - Mars terraforming.
This can be done by introducing, within the Martian soil, very resistant microbes
(and later, cacti) and heating the planet's atmosphere to liberate liquid water from
subsurface permafrost (McKay et al. 1991a , b ), for them to produce oxygen by
photosynthesis (de Morais 2004 ).
Some microorganisms found on Earth can survive and grow in the present-day
harsh conditions found on Mars - temperatures well below zero degrees centigrade;
very dry soil; very thin CO 2 atmosphere, which makes ultraviolet (UV) radiation
from the Sun strong; and global dust storms that take several Martian months
(1 Martian month is equal to 0.9 terrestrial month, and there are 24 Martian months)
blocking part of the Sun's infrared (IR) and visible light, which are four times less
intense than on Earth's surface (de Morais 2004 ).
But before doing that, it is fundamentally necessary for a long-term (some years
of) primary Earth study of the strong influences of such mentioned lower levels
of IR and visible light and higher levels of ultraviolet, CO 2 atmosphere at low
pressure, temperatures below zero degrees centigrade, very dry Mars-like soil and
the lower gravity (as compared to Earth's one) field present on Mars, on microbes'
and vegetables' growth to see if they can develop satisfactorily (de Morais 2004 ).
Ground experiments need to be done to simulate such influent characteristics
found on Mars. The only one characteristic which cannot be simulated on the
ground is the Martian 0.38 g gravity field. Studies of microgravity (near zero-g)
environment aboard satellites in Earth's orbit, on microbes and plants, show strong
effects on their growth and development (de Morais 2004 ).
Thus, there is a fundamental and strong necessity for a 0.38-g gravity simulation
with vegetables and resistant microbes on Earth's orbit to get scientific informa-
tion on which species will have optimal growth under the real Martian gravity
environment, during the international manned missions on that planet (for two
main objectives, the growth of plants for producing oxygen, food, and liquid water
to the astronauts on Mars and the growth of microbes for producing oxygen by
photosynthesis in a greenhouse for a controlled Martian terraforming) and to acquire
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