Can Mars grow plants?

I don't know if you've seen The Martian, but Mark Watney successfully planted potatoes on Mars. Can Mars actually grow plants?

Can Mars grow plants?

American scientists have copied the composition of Martian soil, added a little fertilizer, and successfully planted dozens of plants such as tomatoes and peas on Earth. This suggests that the soil conditions on Mars are perfectly viable for plant growth.

II. Unsolved problems

Although on Mars, the soil is suitable for planting plants, there are still some problems that have not been solved, mainly as follows:

1. Oxygen: plants absorb carbon dioxide emissions oxygen photosynthesis, but when there is no sun at night, the plant will absorb oxygen emissions carbon dioxide, this is the normal respiration of plant cells, although we stand in the overall view is to inhale carbon dioxide emissions of oxygen, but also to meet the needs of the cells of oxygen even if there has been the existence of light, but Mars atmosphere oxygen accounted for less than one percent, so plants still can not survive normally.

2. Temperature: The average temperature of Mars is minus 55 degrees Celsius. The Mars probe measured that the highest temperature of Mars can reach 27 degrees Celsius and the lowest temperature reaches minus 143 degrees Celsius. In time, we planted plants at more than 20 degrees Celsius, but at night, the temperature dropped to minus tens of degrees Celsius, which is not suitable for plant growth.

3. Atmospheric pressure: Mars 'atmospheric pressure is very low, far below the standard atmospheric pressure of the Earth, only 600 Pa, such a low pressure means that Mars' atmospheric density is very small, greatly affecting plant photosynthesis and respiration.

4. Water: Although the U.S. exploration of Mars confirmed intermittent liquid water on Mars, intermittent is clearly not enough for plant growth. And scientists believe that water on Mars, if it exists at all, exists in solid form, trapped underground.

At present, it is impossible to grow plants on Mars. If you want to grow plants on Mars, you can only build laboratories and artificially create conditions to meet the growth of plants. In the future, these problems may be solved and plants will be grown on Mars.