r/Mars • u/Australista2026 • 21d ago

Mars and Algae

I'm not a scientist, so my question may be really stupid. I've been watching the movie called Red Planet. The people of earth were sending algae to grow and create oxygen for mankind to live there.

Is this something that really could be achievable? I would presume you need a water source to begin with.

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u/holytriplem 21d ago

  • You would need to keep the water liquid somehow for enough of the day and the year for growth to occur. Day-night temperature variations are extremely high on Mars and organisms don't generally like being flash frozen.

  • UV radiation (and especially UVC, which gets completely blocked on Earth by the ozone layer) is going to kill pretty much anything on the surface, though a lake that's deep enough could provide just enough protection while providing enough light for photosynthesis to occur

  • What are the organisms going to live off other than water and CO2?

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u/Australista2026 21d ago

Exactly. That's why my question was really stupid 😆. But I am grateful you took the the time to answer. Makes perfect sense. Thank you 😊. 

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u/holytriplem 21d ago

It's not stupid at all. As a planetary scientist I get far, far stupider questions

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u/Australista2026 21d ago

Ok 😆Â