Feeding people on another planet is not a problem that science fiction invented. It’s a problem that researchers at NASA, Wageningen University, and laboratories across three continents are actively working to solve right now. There is no food naturally available on Mars, and there is no easy way to create it from any raw materials on the Red Planet using a simple chemical reactor.
Future colonists on Mars will need to produce fresh food locally to acquire key nutrients lost in food dehydration, the primary technique for sending food to space. The five crops examined here are not wishful thinking. They are the most scientifically supported candidates drawn from peer-reviewed research, NASA documentation, and controlled regolith experiments conducted between 2019 and 2026.
Why Growing Food on Mars Is Harder Than It Sounds
Mars is not simply a cold, distant version of Earth. The Martian soil, known as regolith, contains elements that make it difficult for crops to grow. For example, regolith contains large amounts of highly toxic perchlorates and is hydrophobic, repelling water on contact. These are not minor obstacles.
Farming on Mars introduces a serious perchlorate problem. Martian soil cannot be used for growing crops until those toxic salts are removed. Building a closed-loop agricultural system that produces enough calories for a crew with no resupply from Earth remains one of the hardest unsolved problems in space colonization.
Sustaining human life on Mars presents a series of complex challenges, requiring robust life support systems to meet the basic necessities of air, water, and food. These systems must be designed to function efficiently in the harsh Martian environment, emphasizing sustainability and reliability. Despite these barriers, controlled experiments have already shown that certain crops can take root under simulated Martian conditions.
The Regolith Reality: What Mars Soil Can Actually Do
Researchers at Wageningen University & Research reported on a large-scale controlled experiment to investigate the possibility of growing plants in Mars and Moon soil simulants. The results show that plants are able to germinate and grow on both Martian and Moon soil simulant for a period of fifty days without any addition of nutrients. Growth and flowering on Mars regolith simulant was much better than on Moon regolith simulant and even slightly better than the control nutrient-poor river soil.
On Earth, it is possible to test the viability of using Martian soil for crop growth using Mars regolith simulants. Several crop growth experiments have been successfully carried out using such simulants, with over twenty different species of crops reported to be able to grow and produce yield. That number is a genuine milestone.
Results show that in principle it is possible to grow crops and other plant species in Martian and Lunar soil simulants. However, many questions remain about the simulants’ water-carrying capacity and other physical characteristics, and also whether the simulants are representative of the real soils. The gap between a lab simulant and actual Martian dirt is still meaningful.
Food #1: Tomatoes
In Wageningen University experiments, tomato, wheat, and cress performed particularly well in Mars regolith simulant. Tomatoes are now among the most consistently successful crops tested in Martian soil conditions, a pattern confirmed across multiple independent research groups.
Tomato can provide shade for the temperature-sensitive carrot and support for climbing pea, and both carrot and tomato release root exudates such as flavonoids that can promote root nodule formation in pea. This makes tomatoes not just a food source, but a functional partner in an intercropped Martian garden.
A chief advantage of fresh food over dehydrated food is the retainment of nutrients essential to human health, especially antioxidants such as vitamin C and beta-carotene, both of which are partially reduced or completely destroyed in the process of dehydration. For colonists under the stress of long-duration missions, that difference matters considerably.
Food #2: Potatoes
According to NASA plant researcher Ray Wheeler, potatoes, sweet potatoes, wheat, and soybeans would all be good candidates for space crop production because they provide a lot of carbohydrates, and soybeans are a good source of protein. Potatoes rank high on the list for one simple reason: caloric density relative to growing space.
As human space exploration advances towards establishing sustainable Martian habitats, achieving autonomous food production is a critical requirement. The potato, with its notable environmental resilience and nutritional efficiency, is a prime candidate crop. A 2026 study published in PMC analyzed the conceptual framework for Martian potato cultivation in detail.
That study developed a framework for Martian potato cultivation by systematically analyzing the disparities between Martian conditions and plant physiology, identifying seven fundamental challenges: atmospheric composition, extreme temperatures, water scarcity, soil properties, nutrient deficiencies, absent microbiota, and radiation and gravity effects. Each of these is a solvable engineering problem, not an absolute barrier.
Food #3: Sweet Potatoes
Growing food autonomously on Mars is challenging due to the Martian soil’s low nutrient content and high salinity. Understanding how plants adapt and evaluating their nutritional attributes are pivotal for sustained Mars missions. Research published in early 2024 examined the regeneration, stress tolerance, and dietary metrics of sweet potato across different Mars Global Simulant concentrations.
In greenhouse experiments, a seventy-five percent Mars Global Simulant concentration significantly inhibited sweet potato growth, storage root biomass, and chlorophyll content. This tells researchers the exact tolerance limits they need to work within, which is valuable data rather than a discouragement.
Sweet potatoes offer a distinct nutritional advantage over regular potatoes. They are dense in beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A, which would be critical in an environment where dietary variety is severely constrained. Combined with their relatively short growing cycle and vine-based growth pattern that suits compact indoor environments, they earn a firm place on the colonist’s shortlist.
Food #4: Peas and Legumes
As a legume, pea can serve as a nitrogen fixer in the system in symbiosis with rhizobia bacteria. On Mars, where synthetic fertilizers cannot be endlessly resupplied, this is not a minor feature. It could be a foundational survival mechanism for the entire agricultural system.
Research identified that the absence of rhizobia nodulation in Mars regolith negates the role of pea as a nitrogen fixer. Some physical and chemical properties of the Mars regolith simulant, such as elevated compactness and high pH, may have created a hostile environment for the survival and nodulation of rhizobia bacteria, while also limiting nutrient availability. This is a known problem that researchers are actively targeting.
Researchers suggest utilizing a higher grain grade to reduce soil compactness, and simulating a cyclic system in order to use past harvest waste as compost to increase soil pH and nutrient availability. The solution, in other words, is iterative soil improvement, a process that mirrors how productive farming soils developed on Earth over centuries, compressed into a matter of mission years.
Food #5: Spirulina and Microalgae
Algae are promising candidates for bioregenerative life support systems due to their completely edible biomass, fast growth rates and ease of handling. Extremophilic algae, such as snow algae and halophilic algae, may also be especially suited because of their ability to grow under extreme conditions.
Spirulina grew well in media obtained by mixing leachate of Mars regolith simulants and urine. Spirulina also grew well in pure carbon dioxide obtainable by purifying and pressurizing Mars atmosphere. That second point is significant: the Martian atmosphere is roughly ninety-five percent carbon dioxide, making it a ready raw material.
Researchers estimated that by taking advantage of this technology, a culture of about fifteen cubic meters available within pressurized domes would be sufficient to meet the protein needs of a crew of six members. Spirulina is also a key component of the European Space Agency’s main biological life support project, owing to its efficient production of oxygen and edible biomass, as well as its provision of essential nutrients.
The Case for Intercropping: Growing Multiple Crops Together
Researchers from Wageningen University tested the viability of applying an intercropping system as a method for soil-based food production in Martian colonies. This novel approach adds valuable insight into how resource use can be optimized and colony self-sustainability enhanced, since Martian colonies will operate under very limited space, energy, and Earth supplies.
Carrot helps aerate the soil, which can improve water and nutrient uptake by companion plants. Tomato can provide shade for the temperature-sensitive carrot and support for the climbing pea. Growing these crops together is not just convenient; it creates a system where each plant’s biology helps its neighbors survive.
All three species, tomato, pea, and carrot, have compostable crop waste that can be mixed with the soil to provide key nutrients. That cyclical quality, where each harvest feeds the next planting, is exactly what a self-sustaining colony needs.
NASA’s Current Testing and the CHAPEA Mission
The first crew to live and work for a year in NASA’s ground-based, simulated Mars habitat would not have the luxury of fresh food deliveries, but they would have the chance to grow some fresh produce. The crop growth station inside the CHAPEA habitat is similar to indoor home gardening systems.
The crop growth system inside the CHAPEA habitat will provide water, nutrients, and lighting that can support the growth of leafy crops, herbs, and small fruits. Astronauts on a round-trip mission to Mars will not have resupply missions to deliver fresh food, and NASA is researching food systems to ensure quality, variety, and nutritional values for these long missions.
Crop production can supplement a pre-packaged space diet to provide nutrition and dietary variety for space crews. In future missions, bioregenerative approaches may be used to generate a larger percentage of the diet, as well as help to reduce life support system burdens and resupply from Earth. That shift, from supplement to primary food source, is the long-term goal.
The Soil Problem: Turning Regolith Into Something Living
Colonists will need to turn regolith into soil to grow food in it. Martian regolith contains high concentrations of toxic salts known as perchlorates. Fortunately, methods exist for removing them. They are highly soluble in water, meaning they can be removed by washing.
Some bacteria eat perchlorates and excrete chlorides, which are more benign. This method is already used for treating perchlorate-laden water on Earth. The biological pathway is particularly interesting because it requires no imported chemicals, only microorganisms that could potentially be carried aboard a spacecraft.
One clear point from researchers is that human feces from the colonists will be central to enriching the Martian soil enough to grow food, requiring time and numerous crop cycles. It sounds unglamorous, but closed-loop waste systems are a serious and well-studied part of Mars agriculture planning, not an afterthought.
What the Research Still Cannot Answer
The impact of Mars’ reduced gravity on plant growth and aeroponic systems is not fully understood, necessitating further research and potential modifications to current technology. Ongoing research focuses on developing more resilient aeroponic systems, optimizing nutrient solutions, and studying plant behavior in simulated Martian gravity conditions.
There is the lack of pollinators which cannot fully be replaced with drone pollinators, and cosmic radiation which is significantly higher on Mars than on Earth because it lacks a magnetic field and protective atmosphere. These are not trivial gaps. Tomatoes, for example, require pollination to fruit.
A nine-point framework called the Bioregenerative Life Support System Readiness Level was designed to assist scientists in overcoming challenges to establish resilient, sustainable crop production in space. The framework was included in a paper published in the New Phytologist in November 2025, drawing from priorities developed at an international plant science workshop held in Liverpool in September 2024. The science is moving forward, methodically, with real urgency behind it.
Conclusion: The Five Foods That Could Define Human Survival Beyond Earth
Tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, and spirulina do not share much in common at a dinner table on Earth. On Mars, they represent something entirely different: the narrow overlap between what the human body needs and what Martian conditions may allow.
Fresh food provides a much better bioavailability of nutrients in the body, mediated via a complex array of other compounds present. The act of growing fresh food can also have a great positive impact on the mental well-being of colonists. That second point deserves more attention than it usually receives.
The challenge of feeding a Mars colony is ultimately a reminder that agriculture has always been the quiet foundation beneath every civilization. The scientists working on this problem are not just solving a logistics puzzle. They are deciding what kind of life is possible on a world where nothing edible has ever grown before. That is a task worth taking seriously.
