Life on Mars means subsisting on grim diet of turd-garden spinach Farmers are often heard singing about their desire for a brand new combine harvester, but they might not even need one if they fancy going to Mars. NASA bods have said the valuable skills of growing veggies and nurturing plantlife are vital to any Mars colonisation. Indeed, according to a talk given at the Human 2 Mars …
Depends on why they died. If it's due to starvation, there is sadly little time left to "grow" anything. Look at history and sieges for an example of what happens in these situations. We would hope to choose to wait it out (if I could hold out), but there is a high possibility others would not have the desire, or strength, to withstand the urges. :O
....grown largely in their own excrement.
Growing food this way would make someone very sick. Compared to the animal dung used for fertilizer here on Earth human excrement is loaded with living bacteria, many of which would be extremely hazardous to our health if it came into contact with our food. We make up for this by having sterile urine (most animals do not).
At any rate, I'd have a very low expectation of survival for someone trying to subsist on food grown from their own poo.
As stated elsewhere: the bacteria in shit is the bacteria in the human that produced it. Excrement is a vector for spreading a disease that's already present in the population. Sending people with cholera or dysentery into space would be a bad idea. But screening and quarantining will result in a safe population....
There's going to be a lot of jealous comments about how the guys back on the ISS have it soft, what with their "turkey in a tube" and all.
Also a definite risk of future landers getting mobbed based on a vicious rumor that the incoming explorers have packs of saltines......
"Modern hydroponics lets you grow and eat just anything you want in one fourth the space as dirt farming with substantially less water and much higher yield rate."
Perhaps.
But when you've grown those plants the nutrients are bound.
So where does the next round of nutrients come from?
It's a closed system remember.
it appears the book should be free -
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30393.15
" Here's the VERY LAST SENTENCE IN THE BOOK:
Quote
Redistribution of this e-book is permitted, so long as it is distributed for free"
PDF available
In which case maybe some revisionism and backtracking is going on! -
http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html (Andy Weir's page)
"...The Martian:
The Martian is going to be published in print by Random House. The hardcover edition
is scheduled for release in February 2014. Until then, it will not be available in
print or digital form. The Audiobook is still available. ..."
My mother was brought up in the english countryside, no inside loo, no electricity or mains services of any sort. All her food was grown in human excrement. Simple system hut with bucket, man with spade, hole, first year eat crops picked above ground, afterwards it's ok for root crops. Tomatos love it by the way, she's currently eighty-six and counting.
Mind if you took her back to those days she'd spit in your eye, outside loos are cold and nasty, not to mention the spiders.
Hmmm that sounds like a Dr. Who title "Spiders of Mars"
Wouldn't it be better to send some robots to start growing the fruit and veg? The robots could compost the uneaten vegetation and use this in place of human shit. The added advantages are that the robots wouldn't starve if their farming proved ineffective and humans could delay their arrival until the robots have food and drainage up and running. Hopefully, the robots would be less likely to commit suicide or get drunk and kill each other.
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