Scientists have managed to simulate Martian soil in which two worms were recently born as experts set their sights on farming on the planet like Matt Damon did in the 2015 film Martian.
The birth of the worms in the mock Martian soil, made from volcanic terrestrial rocks, has given hope to scientists that farming on the planet may one day be possible.
Wieger Wamelink of Wageningen University & Research explained that live adult worms were added into the soil to assess their ability to cope with the unusual terrain and did not expect the experiment to lead to successful reproduction.
In a statement he said: “Clearly the manure stimulated growth, especially in the Mars soil simulant, and we saw that the worms were active.
“However, the best surprise came at the end of the experiment when we found two young worms in the Mars soil simulant.”
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The red planet’s climate is not naturally habitable making it currently impossible to grow crops on Earth’s closest neighbour.
Worms have the ability to breakdown organic matter in soil which can release vital plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.
The birth of the baby worms in the model Martian soil implies that worms are able to thrive in these closed ecosystems giving hope to the chances of growing food on the planet in the future.
The scientists even found from their experiment that the worms may be able to do their work better in Mars soil than they do in soil on Earth.
Mr Wamelink added: “The positive effect of adding manure was not unexpected but we were surprised that it makes Mars soil simulant outperform Earth silver sand.”
The organisation behind the discovery have launched a crowdfunding campaign to continue their experiments with the worms in the hope to turn the scenes from Matt Damon’s film into a reality.
Named “Worms for Mars” Wageningen University and Research are hoping to raise £8,800 (€10,000) to continue testing how the creatures react to the soil when farming a variety of different crops.
NASA is hoping to develop the capabilities to send humans to Mars by 2040.
The US space agency has a long term mission of working out whether life exists beyond Earth and if life on Mars could be possible in the future.