Qiongzhou Island, Wenchang.

The Second International Multilateral Symposium on Mars Rescue.

“Mr. Brosnan, I think we need to reassess the situation at ‘Mercy Station’,” Xiao Yimin said. “Based on the Mars Boy’s movement trajectory that we’ve obtained over the past two days, the accident at ‘Mercy Station’ is not serious, or rather, no accident has occurred.”

“Mr. Xiao, although we in Europe have a good relationship with the United States, but, um…” Brosnan suddenly couldn’t remember how to express it, “What’s a word you use to describe us?”

"Brothers on the surface."

“Yes, fair-weather friends!” Brosnan continued, “Our applications to use ‘Peace Station’ have also been rejected for the past 10 years.”

"So, in the last 10 years, no European astronauts have been to Mir Station?"

"Yes. Mr. Xiao, your country is already at the forefront of interstellar exploration. Haven't you investigated its actual situation? For example, by using radar satellites to scan 'Mercy Station'?"

"We have made some achievements in near-Earth exploration, but in the field of Mars exploration, the United States still leads the way. At best, we have caught up with the level of our big brother Ross."

China's interplanetary exploration technology started late, but developed rapidly, and it is already at the forefront in the near-Earth field. For example, its actual development of the moon is higher than that of Milos and Romania.

The United States maintains its advantage in Mars exploration due to its early start, but it is already feeling the pressure from the second-place country catching up.

The "Bird's Nest" Mars base, initiated and built by the People's Republic of China, is a good example. Initially, the United States obstructed the plan in every possible way, believing that Mars already had the "Peace Station," and that building it again would be a waste of human resources.

However, as the international community's circle of friends joining the "Bird's Nest" grew larger, the United States was the first to strongly demand to join, shamelessly securing its position as one of the founding members.

From that time onward, the "Peace Station" became Miro's private property, prohibiting its use by other countries. Currently, China does not want to provoke the United States, so it has not conducted an in-depth investigation into the situation of the "Peace Station."

“Mr. Brosnan, perhaps we should write them a letter? Given the current predicament of humanity, we can no longer afford to scheme against each other.”

"Mr. Xiao, I will write to US President Washington, and you will write to Prime Minister Rosmedov?"

"That's exactly what I meant."

Mars, the "Peace Station" base.

In search of food, Zhang Fan came to the plant experiment chamber of "Peace Station".

This experimental chamber is somewhat similar to the central garden of the "Bird's Nest," but it is much smaller and its ecosystem is not as complete.

Zhang Fan looked at the "forest" area of ​​the experimental chamber, filled with Hainan rosewood, small-leaf sandalwood, golden nanmu, and agarwood...

Damn it!

Why isn't there a single fruit tree? Even a papaya tree would be fine.

Before large-scale human colonization of Mars, besides food, researching and cultivating some high-value rare plants and bringing them back to Earth for cultivation is a very cost-effective approach.

In extreme situations of food scarcity, Zhang Fan considered eating tree bark to survive. Historical records describe people eating tree bark during famines; regardless of its nutritional value, this at least demonstrates that tree bark was edible.

I just don't know if the bark of trees like Hainan rosewood, small-leaf sandalwood, and golden nanmu is edible...

Zhang Fan took a bite, almost breaking his front tooth, and had to give up.

In the flowerbed area, they found a pair of highly ornamental golden tulips. On Earth, one of these could be traded for a car, but Zhang Fan would rather trade it for an edible onion.

There's also the rose, nicknamed "Blue Enchantress." The petals taste bitter when chewed, so regardless of whether it's edible, its texture alone makes it unsuitable as food.

Women like to use its petals to take baths, but Zhang Fan doesn't think he has the time or inclination for that.

But there were still some surprises, such as the discovery of the Castano palm, known as the "King of Vegetables".

The finest vegetable dishes served at top-tier restaurants are salads made from the heart of palm trees.

Based solely on its title as the "King of Vegetables," Zhang Fan felt it was a hundred times superior to plants like Phoebe zhennan. He immediately broke off a tree, peeled back the layers of bark, and revealed the tender white palm heart.

Palm heart can be eaten raw. Zhang Fan took a bite and found it to be crisp and crunchy, somewhat similar to the taste of walnuts. However, after peeling a palm tree, all that's left is a thin palm heart, not enough for several meals.

Fortunately, in addition to the palm core, a Chinese toon tree was also found.

Every 100 grams of Chinese toon sprouts contains about 9.8 grams of protein and is also rich in various vitamins. In addition to being eaten as a vegetable, it can even be used as medicine.

It makes a great side dish.

There are also daylilies, which are golden in color, have thick petals, a fragrant aroma, and are also very nutritious.

People usually eat dried daylilies. Fresh daylilies contain a toxic substance called colchicine. If you want to eat fresh daylilies, you should first blanch them in boiling water and then soak them in clean water for more than two hours to destroy the colchicine.

Zhang Fan was a bit overwhelmed. Eating only these things would definitely lead to malnutrition, but even so, they would still finish them quickly.

Palm heart is delicious, but it takes too long to mature, and it's too late to plant it now. Chinese toon trees don't sprout all year round, and daylilies don't bloom every day.

Based on the current food supplies, Zhang Fan estimated that they could last for at most two days.

Are we really going to follow Matt Damon's example and grow potatoes in poop?

NASA once conducted an experiment, following the actions of Matt Damon in the movie, planting potato tubers in a simulated Martian environment, and one salt-tolerant potato variety actually began to sprout and grow.

Therefore, growing potatoes on Mars is theoretically feasible, and based on experience on Earth, the areas near craters and lava beds are sources of high-quality soil.

The problem occurred in the latter part of the experiment.

Researchers detected highly active perchlorate in soil samples collected from Mars.

Perchlorate is a toxic chemical that is a major component of rocket solid fuel and is also found in fireworks and other explosives.

In other words, potatoes grown using Martian soil are poisonous.

Unless you first plant large quantities of natural fibers such as bamboo and hemp to allow crops to absorb perchlorate from the soil, but this is a long purification process, things are likely to become difficult and inefficient as a result.

Zhang Fan was genuinely planning to grow something, but not potatoes. He noticed that the plant experiment chamber had a complete hydroponic system.

Hydroponics does not require soil; crops can be grown using only nutrient solution.

What to plant?

Spirulina.

Spirulina is a high-protein food. The iron and zinc in Martian soil, combined with the high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus in human urine and other excrement, help spirulina grow.

Thinking about it this way, spirulina really is a very suitable food source for surviving on Mars.

Just imagine a group of people on Mars eating spirulina that they "grew up" from each other; they certainly wouldn't have much of an appetite.

But don't underestimate algae.

About 3 billion years ago, Earth was an oxygen-free environment. The transformation of Earth from an oxygen-free environment to an oxygen-free environment was caused by the emergence and oxygen production of prokaryotic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria.

People often think that the oxygen we breathe comes from the photosynthesis of terrestrial plants. In fact, most of the oxygen produced by terrestrial plants through photosynthesis is consumed by the plants' own respiration.

The oxygen on Earth mainly comes from the ocean.

A plant's photosynthetic efficiency is inversely proportional to its size; that is, the smaller the plant, the higher its photosynthetic efficiency per unit weight. It may take a year for a tree to double in size, while an algae can divide into two in just one day, demonstrating its rapid growth.

Scientists have proposed the following hypothesis:

First, launch a large number of nuclear bombs to bombard the Martian surface, causing the polar ice caps to melt completely and forming liquid water and an initial atmosphere on Mars. Then, launch anaerobic prokaryotic algae to Mars to improve the atmosphere. Once the oxygen content of the Martian atmosphere reaches a certain level, send cockroaches, which are extremely resilient and feed on algae, to Mars.

In this way, a primitive ecological cycle can be established on Mars, until these small plants and animals transform the Martian environment into one suitable for human survival.

Humans even created a comic book about it.

After finishing all this, at least my basic survival will be secured.

Zhang Fan had a palm core in his mouth, rocked back in his chair with his legs crossed, and stared at the screen in the main control room.

The main computer at Peace Station displays important monitoring data from the base on the main screen, such as the working status of the oxygen production system and the oxygen consumption of the astronauts.

An astronaut breathes more than 20,000 times a day, and each breath consumes 5% of the oxygen in the air, which is then converted into carbon dioxide.

To put it simply, an astronaut consumes 0.75 kg of pure oxygen every 24 hours.

Zhang Fan looked at the oxygen consumption data for the past 24 hours on the screen:

1.5kg.

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