Could mushrooms be the key to sustainable living on Mars?

[GTOM]

I'm going to write a space opera, a part of it involves Mars. I wonder about the plausibility level of my following imaginations.

"She descanded on the space elevator. The landscape outside looked like a mushroom field. There were transparent and red ones. The hats of the former ones were big lenses, that focused light to the trunks, that sucked in CO2. Inside the trunks, two different kind of microorganism bred. One produced oxygen, the other methane. The gases were gathered on the top, and pumped to the red mushroom like farm buildings for heating. During night, insulation and the rest of the gases kept the water inside the trunks fluid. The farm buildings had flat roofs covered by thick layer of martian sand for rad protection. People lived at the middle, green houses lit by mirrors and animal holding pens were at the rim. The point was that even if the fusion power plant of the city had failed, the agriculture could still survive."

I wondered whether theese things could be a more efficient alternative to solar panels, or demand less rare materials?

"The city was like to a really tall forest, the low gravity of Mars enabled architecture that was almost unimaginable on Earth. The spires of the city had a relatively small area at the basement, there were large squares, parks, wide roads between them. But above the lead-glass covered streets, the spires started to expand into wide verdures, connected by closed bridges."

 

[DaveC426913]

Kind of cool idea. Maybe read Burroughs' John Carter series, to be sure you're not inadvertently rehashing someone else's ideas.

I assume you're going to have an editor go over it in-depth for grammatical and diction errors?
Couple of tech points:
Mushrooms don't photosynthesize, so no reason for them to want sunlight.
Actually, they're not Earth mushrooms, are they? They have some chemistry quite unEarthlike.
BTW, a mushroom's "hat" is called a cap.
What is the atmo of Mars in this story? Curious about animals in pens.

 

[GTOM]

Kind of cool idea. Maybe read Burroughs' John Carter series, to be sure you're not inadvertently rehashing someone else's ideas.

I assume you're going to have an editor go over it in-depth for grammatical and diction errors?
Couple of tech points:
Mushrooms don't photosynthesize, so no reason for them to want sunlight.
Actually, they're not Earth mushrooms, are they? They have some chemistry quite unEarthlike.
BTW, a mushroom's "hat" is called a cap.
What is the atmo of Mars in this story? Curious about animals in pens.

John Carter ok, i think i watch the movie.
I hope a professional translator will do a better job than me.
The mushrooms are artificial structures, humans can put anything they want into them (so microorganisms that photosynthesize).
Atmo is almost the same as today (more industrial pollution, if they increase greenhouse effect, that is good)
Animal holding pens are closed and have oxygen, i think about animals that don't require big space, like pigs and chicken.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

I find transparency unlikely, but got no problems with the rest. The low gravity would allow for large mushrooms with enough surface area to breathe the thin atmosphere. Giant mushrooms colonized Earth in the past.

 

[GTOM]

I find transparency unlikely, but got no problems with the rest. The low gravity would allow for large mushrooms with enough surface area to breathe the thin atmosphere. Giant mushrooms colonized Earth in the past.

The mushrooms are man made glass statues, but there is living inside.

 

[member 656954]

I'm going to write a space opera

I note your post from 2016, @GTOM, did you ever write your space opera?

 

[GTOM]

I note your post from 2016, @GTOM, did you ever write your space opera?

Currently rewriting it, then search for publisher.

 

[member 656954]

Currently rewriting it, then search for publisher.

Best of luck on both fronts, though self-publishing on Amazon is also a very straightforward option now.

 

[Bab5space]

I'm going to write a space opera, a part of it involves Mars. I wonder about the plausibility level of my following imaginations.

"She descanded on the space elevator. The landscape outside looked like a mushroom field. There were transparent and red ones. The hats of the former ones were big lenses, that focused light to the trunks, that sucked in CO2. Inside the trunks, two different kind of microorganism bred. One produced oxygen, the other methane. The gases were gathered on the top, and pumped to the red mushroom like farm buildings for heating. During night, insulation and the rest of the gases kept the water inside the trunks fluid. The farm buildings had flat roofs covered by thick layer of martian sand for rad protection. People lived at the middle, green houses lit by mirrors and animal holding pens were at the rim. The point was that even if the fusion power plant of the city had failed, the agriculture could still survive."

I wondered whether theese things could be a more efficient alternative to solar panels, or demand less rare materials?

"The city was like to a really tall forest, the low gravity of Mars enabled architecture that was almost unimaginable on Earth. The spires of the city had a relatively small area at the basement, there were large squares, parks, wide roads between them. But above the lead-glass covered streets, the spires started to expand into wide verdures, connected by closed bridges."

Plants on mars? I will tell you what I have read and seen.

Read: Plants using martian dirt are plausible, but they are also likely toxic due to the abundance of perchorlates (probably misspelled it) in the martian soil. Now it is possible to filter that junk out, but in all likelihood it will require more tech to do so. In other words, simply planting and eating is not good enough, one must create a filter first, then plant and eat.

Seen: Martian plants that are not filtering out all the toxic martian stuff tend to have yellowish leaves rather than green.If you wish to know more google is your aide.

For what it's worth, matt damon on the martian would have died on Mars due to the toxins from all those martian grown potatoes.

The amount of perchlorates in the martian soil is considered industrial level or worse by Earth safety regulations standards.

 

[GTOM]

Best of luck on both fronts, though self-publishing on Amazon is also a very straightforward option now.

Hungarian publication at first. Translation isn't cheap.

 

[member 656954]

Plants using martian dirt are plausible, but they are also likely toxic due to the abundance of perchorlates (probably misspelled it) in the martian soil.

I didn't know that, @Bab5space, but it makes sense that other worlds, even in our solar system would have unexpectedly harsh local conditions like perchlorates. So, @GTOM's mushrooms will need to filter it out, and ideally use any ammonium perchlorate for fuel.