[xyzzy123]

And growing vegetables on the moon is far too expensive to be practical - moon rocks cost thousands of dollars per gram!

EDIT: OK, for the benefit of whoever didn't have a sense of humor, I was suggesting that the astronauts might be planning on bringing some soil with them.

[draq]

ever heard of supply and demand?

[xyzzy123]

Yep. It gets kind of interesting though when you think about the challenges.

You could have a really good plan to convert martian soil for plant use, but then again, that might fail. This obviously means you can't depend on your garden. Also, what you would have would be a laboratory, not a garden. You would spend a lot more time analysing the food than eating it.

On the other hand, you could carry out a sample return mission, bring some mars dust back, run tests, and land with a solid plan. Only thing is, sample return from mars would make moon rocks look cheap.

Finally, bringing the soil with you would be the most reliable method. It's moon rocks in reverse though! That soil would be, kilo for kilo, the most expensive soil in the history of mankind.

[lmm]

Ship the conversion equipment and laboratory first, remotely operated and mostly autonomous. Send mice second. Send people only when you know your garden is working and producing edible (or good enough that it's an acceptable risk) food.

This might require slightly better AI than currently exists, and a lot of patience from telepresence operators, but it seems achievable in the near future.

[xyzzy123]

Thinking about this more, I guess hydroponics might be the way to go ;)

[patrickk]

Another way that growing marijuana is benefiting mankind! ;-)

[danielweber]

You would want to bring some nitrogen fertilizer, which is what the Mars soil seems to be short on.

(N2 also exists in the atmosphere, but at low levels.)

[draq]

or we can just eat algae.