{"id":93717,"date":"2019-07-16T06:45:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T13:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/a-thin-layer-of-aerogel-could-make-martian-farming-possible"},"modified":"2019-07-16T06:45:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T13:45:12","slug":"a-thin-layer-of-aerogel-could-make-martian-farming-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/a-thin-layer-of-aerogel-could-make-martian-farming-possible","title":{"rendered":"A Thin Layer of Aerogel Could Make Martian Farming Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/a-thin-layer-of-aerogel-could-make-martian-farming-possible.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists think they\u2019ve found a way to terraform Mars \u2014 and all it takes is a thin blanket of insulation over future space gardens.<\/p>\n<p>A layer of aerogel just two to three centimeters thick may be enough to protect plants from the harshest aspects of life on Mars and create viable greenhouses in the process, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-019-0813-0#author-information\">according to research<\/a> published Monday in the journal <em>Nature Astronomy<\/em>. While there are a host of other problems to solve before anyone can settle Mars, this terraforming plan is far more feasible than other ideas that scientists have proposed.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the biggest challenges facing Martian settlers are the Red Planet\u2019s deadly temperatures and unfiltered solar radiation, which is able to pass through Mars\u2019 weak atmosphere and reach the surface, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2209746-terraforming-mars-with-strange-silica-blanket-could-let-plants-thrive\/\"><em>New Scientist <\/em><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2209746-terraforming-mars-with-strange-silica-blanket-could-let-plants-thrive\/\">reports<\/a>. At night, it can reach &minus;100 degrees Celsius, which is far too cold for any Earthly crops to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists think they\u2019ve found a way to terraform Mars \u2014 and all it takes is a thin blanket of insulation over future space gardens. A layer of aerogel just two to three centimeters thick may be enough to protect plants from the harshest aspects of life on Mars and create viable greenhouses in the process, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1527,38,1507],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alien-life","category-engineering","category-environmental"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}