Team:UNIK Copenhagen/Soil
Soil
Testing if moss can survive in soil similar to Martian soil is an interesting experiment for two reasons: 1. Although it would be possible to bring a media for the moss to grow in, it would save launch mass if the moss could grow in the soil already present. 2. Mars soil contains perchlorate which is poisonous and moss could potentially be used to detoxify the martian soil and make it safe for astronauts.
To test this we use the JSC-Mars-1-simulant soil which is as close as you get to actual Martian soil without leaving Earth. The image below shows the similarities between the two. The dotted line portrays actual measurements of the soil form the surface of Mars, while the solid line is the reflectivity spectra for JSC-Mars-1 simulant. Especially in the lower wavelengths the similarity is seen to be high.
JSC-Mars-1-simulant soil comes from the sadle area between the volcanoes Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on Big Island Hawaii. Team member Christina Toldbo went there to visit - check out the video below.