I was fascinated with reading about the effortsand plans to develop and improve food conditions in space. Reading about plans to develop a greenhouse in Mars seemed like something I would picture only in a sci-fi movie or something that can only happen in another thousand years. However, we we had a guest lecture, Maggie Coblentz, from the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration initiative, I realized we might be closer to a building a greenhouse in Mars than I imagined. I was a partially in shock and partially amazed to hear what the MIT media lab is doing- and paying to test out food and living conditions in space. Maggie and her MIT peers had dedicated a lot of time, and money, developing and testing out ideas for improving space life. While the idea of space intrigues and fascinates me, part of me felt that all of the time and money allocated to this project felt a bit useless in one way. Food and living conditions have to be improved on earth before they can try to improve them in space. It wasn't until our professor Stefani asked the pivotal question I had in my mind during the readings and presentation, that I got why this is important. She asked what is this developing food and living conditions in space doing for the 99.99999+% of us who will never go to space? The answer was more complex than this, but what I got from it is that space has the harshest environment and condition for living that humans have experienced. L:earning to adapt in space can teach us important things about living on earth as we adapt to harsher and worst environments caused by climate change and capitalism. Our temperatures on earth are making it harder to live and grow, we are using up and polluting all of our clean water, we are using up and completely finishing many of our natural resources. In space it is hard to live and grow, temperatures and air quality are extreme, and there are few to none natural resources that we are able to use to live, eat, and drink. I feel like there still needs to be a stronger connection between using what we learn about space living and adapting it to earth living, but Maggie assured that this is one of their intentions. I am very intrigued and interested about what that connection would be. One day growing plants in Mars might not be a lot harder than growing plants on earth.
- danielsendas