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A comment on Earthworms can reproduce in Mars soil simulant.

Re:Earthworms can reproduce in Mars soil simulant by EGreg on Sunday December 24, 2017 @01:12PM (#16000531)
So it might work! Can we boostrap a real, nutrient-rich regolith and ecosystem from scratch? That would be some amazing terraforming - and some major value for mankind.

And here I thought The Martian's most unrealistic part was growing the potatoes.

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Re:Earthworms can reproduce in Mars soil simulant by notthemessiah on Sunday December 24, 2017 @02:09PM (#16000818)
The most unrealistic part was the dust storm in the beginning. Not enough air pressure on Mars for wind to do much.
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Re:Earthworms can reproduce in Mars soil simulant by adrianN on Sunday December 24, 2017 @02:42PM (#16000970)
Somebody did the math: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9301/could-you-fee...
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Re:Earthworms can reproduce in Mars soil simulant by aiofgniaotnio on Sunday December 24, 2017 @01:47PM (#16000712)
The Martian is still pretty unrealistic. It's not possible to get enough light using the setup described in the book.
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