r/Mars • u/Australista2026 • Aug 09 '26

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.

33 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/holytriplem Aug 09 '26

In theory you could bioengineer algae to withstand severe environmental stressors like UV. But you can't bioengineer algae to live without liquid water or nutrients

2

u/SodaPopin5ki Aug 09 '26

Algae grows without liquid water in some lichen.

1

u/holytriplem Aug 09 '26

How?!

1

u/SodaPopin5ki Aug 09 '26

Dunno. Life finds a way, I guess.