Asparagus for Astronauts: Mars Good for Gardening

My wife and I are far too rooted to this good earth to ever want to leave Lake Herman. (Erin's out planting herbs right now.) I like to tell people the only thing that could get me to leave would be some major disaster, like the Yellowstone supervolcano blowing its stack again, or a big old asteroid bearing down on the planet.

But we should always have a Plan B (note to NASA: get to work on more shuttles!). So should that asteroid come, it's nice to know we could pack up our gardening gear and set up shop on Mars. Really! The Phoenix Mars Lander has found that Martian soil—at least up in the northern polar region where the probe is taking samples—has lots of yummy minerals and a pH level between 8 and 9, just right for growing asparagus and other garden goodies.

Of course there are minor issues like an atmosphere too thin to breathe or protect from cosmic radiation and an average temperature of -81° F, but that's what domes are for!

Asparagus on Mars, humanity to the stars... in an infinite universe, there are infinite possibilities.