Inspiration and Description
How does the universe work? What are the forces based on which the Universe is governed? Is there life in the Universe?
All this mysteries has been wandering around scientists’ minds over several decades and have pushed humanity into space and try to answer all these questions.
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of human arrival in the moon. And in 2019, it has also been confirmed the next mission to the Moon, Artemis, whose aim is to carry men and women to our satellite in 2024 and also serve as a base for future extra-terrestrial expeditions.
ES
Apollo 11. NASA
InSight. NASA
After the Moon our steps go to our next planet, Mars. Man has already noticed the red planet, and there have been several missions that have been sent to explore it. The most recent are “Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA”, one of whose objectives is the search for water, and “InSight, NASA” which was launched May 5, 2018, that will give an idea of the evolutionary processes of all rocky planets in the inner solar system.
During all these years humanity has arrived on Mars to learn more about our neighboring planet and, inevitably we wonder ... is there life on Mars?
Can organisms survive? Will we find extremophilic bacteria? Can the soil be fertile one day?
How can we grow on Mars?
There are many possibilities surrounding this question... microorganisms, plants, animals and the continuation of the history of mankind.
At the beginning of the project, we realized that we had the perfect combination between space and life in the form of plants in front of us.
At the entrance of the Planetarium of Pamplona, there is the “Garden of the Galaxy” (the second in the world). The City Council of Pamplona, in collaboration with the Planetarium, built this garden with more than 500 shrubs that form a plant scale replica of the Milky Way. Each bush represents a specific region of the Galaxy with its stars, nebulas and clusters.
Garden of the Galaxy
Last year, the first Navarra_BG team was inspired by all these facts and took another step to the union between space and plants, carrying out a project based on the utilization of plants to produce any protein of nutritious or therapeutic interest that could be purified by a simple and cost-effective method in the International Space Station.
This year, our steps are directed to the red planet.
We must face the environmental conditions of Mars: extremely high irradiance, low gravity, acid pH soils, low atmospheric pressure and freezing temperatures…
We will try to solve these conditions to achieve plants that survive in Mars and produce proteins of interest easily purify.
Do you join our trip to the Red Planet? Do you want to be a part of our space-mision?