Human settlement on Mars is no longer science fiction but a matter of time. To live on another planet, settlers will have to give up many of Earth's comforts. There is no ozone layer over the atmosphere as on Earth, for example, so they will not be able to go out in the sun whenever they like. But one of Earth's luxuries could still be there: wine.

Wine has been made in the European country of Georgia for 8,000 years, and researchers there have already begun work on the possibility of making wine on Mars. The first step is research into growing grapes on Mars. The Georgian project, called IX Millennium, will build the infrastructure for farming on Mars in several stages. The researchers are trying to find out which of Earth's grapes can survive Mars's harsh environment. Permanent human settlement on Mars may happen by 2024, and they hope to find a way of making wine there by then.

As part of the research, a "vertical greenhouse" may be built this year in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Soil and seeds (grapes, strawberries and arugula) will be placed in small pots from ceiling to floor and kept under hydroponic lights, to see whether they survive with little human intervention. Over the next few years, the researchers will try to recreate Martian conditions in a laboratory in Tbilisi and see which grapes grow well there.

The results of this research will not be available before 2022 at the earliest. But the researchers hope it will be possible to make white wine for Mars, because white grapes are less prone to viruses and will also be able to reflect Mars's extra radiation.

The Georgian researchers will only work out how to grow grapes on Mars. The rest of the process of making wine from them will have to be done by the people who settle there. NASA researchers hope that will be possible.

There has been research into farming on Mars before the Georgian work. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are already growing salad vegetables there. Meanwhile, China's Chang'e-4 lander took potatoes and a plant called rockcress to the Moon to see whether they would survive.

Alcohol in space is not new either. The beer company Budweiser has sent barley seeds into space three times in the hope of becoming the "first beer on Mars". A few bottles of Scotch whisky were also kept on the ISS for three years; when they were brought back to Earth, the drink's taste and smell were found to have changed from its time in space.

Source: Online Desk. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.