The Nitrogen cycle [1] is a critical component of many ecological systems. Critical compounds in plants have nitrogen, and the nitrogen for these is absorbed from the soil, where it is fixed by bacteria.
The nitrogen cycle almost entirely involves fixed nitrogen, not inert N2. Nitrogen is fixed from the atmosphere slowly over time through lightning strikes and a very small number of nitrogen fixing bacteria that live symbiotically on the roots of very few plants.
The vast majority of the biomass on earth, including about half of the fixed nitrogen in your body was synthesized industrially via the Haber-Bosch process over the last 100 years.
Aside from those nitrogen fixing bacteria whose output we have already surpassed with industrial processes (artificial fertilizer), inert nitrogen plays no role in biological metabolism. It is not needed, at all.
Mars colonists can import nitrogen, or mine fixed nitrogen from the few deposits that are known to exist. It doesn’t need a massive atmospheric reservoir.
The vast majority of the biomass on earth, including about half of the fixed nitrogen in your body was synthesized industrially via the Haber-Bosch process over the last 100 years.
Aside from those nitrogen fixing bacteria whose output we have already surpassed with industrial processes (artificial fertilizer), inert nitrogen plays no role in biological metabolism. It is not needed, at all.
Mars colonists can import nitrogen, or mine fixed nitrogen from the few deposits that are known to exist. It doesn’t need a massive atmospheric reservoir.