The First Crops on Mars Should be Alfalfa and Cyanobacteria. Then Comes Tastier Plants

Mark Watney can keep his potatoes. Real astronauts should grow alfalfa. That's the finding of a newly published study out of Iowa State University, which tested the viability of making Martian regolith suitable for growing food. The two major insights from the paper are that alfalfa plants make an excellent biofertilizer to boost the organic …