\n<\/p>\n
But gardening doesn\u2019t just require a plot of land, a bit of water, a beam of sunlight. It also requires very animate ingredients: the insects, like black soldier flies, and microorganisms that keep these ecological systems in working order. A trip to Mars for a long-term stay, then, won\u2019t just involve humans. It will also involve creeping, crawling carry-ons most people don\u2019t think about when they envision brave explorers stepping foot on new worlds.<\/p>\n
Space travelers haven\u2019t yet gone very far for very long.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, when you\u2019re going into space, it\u2019s more like going on a prolonged camping trip,\u201d said Scott Parazynski, a former NASA astronaut who spent nearly two months in space. Astronauts bring freeze-dried food (and flavor enhancers like hot sauce). If they\u2019re on the International Space Station, they might get to look at, but rarely consume, fresh greens from an experimental lettuce plot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a far cry from the kitchen downstairs and the spice rack,\u201d Dr. Parazynski said.<\/p>\n
To stay for an extended time on the surface of Mars, though, astronauts won\u2019t be able to rely on their space pantries. They\u2019ll need Martian gardens. And Martian gardens will need a little help \u2014 maybe from black soldier fly larvae and their excretions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very voracious eaters,\u201d said Hellen Elissen a researcher at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. \u201cThey eat almost anything.\u201d And if you feed them well, they\u2019ll make a lot of frass.<\/p>\n
In the past five or 10 years scientists have started to use that frass \u2014 rich in nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and also bacteria \u2014 as fertilizer. The material also contains chitin, from the insects\u2019 bodies, and leftover organic matter. Dr. Elissen recently published a review article about how frass affects plants and soil, and one of her main takeaways was that the value of the insects\u2019 waste coincides with the value of their food. Grass? Frass suffers. Give the larvae higher-energy food scraps? Jackpot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n