Food on Mars

Food on Mars requires inputs from water and atmosphere, and for crops that don't tolerate hydroponics, from regolith by amending it to make usable soil.

Providing food for an exploration team or small station is a solvable challenge (as this short story illustrates), despite limits to solar power. Providing food for a city is a different ballgame. That is why The Mars Society issued its Mars Against Hunger challenge, with a prize for the best workable solution to demonstrate radically more efficient methods of food production needed to support human settlement. Answers developed in response to this challenge will be a boon to both planets.