Tag: Real Science

Geeking Science: N is for Noms

Erin Penn Leave a comment


ID 303497299 | Nasa Food © Stockvectorwin | Dreamstime.com

What is one thing all humans have in common?

We eat. Nom, nom, nom.

We need food at home, we need food at work, we need food at school, we need food at play, we need food on Earth…

We need food in space!

Most of us are familiar with the story of Tang (Cordell). And astronaut ice cream, a freeze-dried delight. Many of the modern hiking food packaging has come from innovations of getting food from here to orbit. Food weighs a lot, and humans, especially active humans executing space walks in Earth’s orbit, need a lot of food.

At this time, humanity has a good handle on getting take-out for field trips into orbit – from tubular scrambled eggs to three-D printing pizza.

Next problem to crack for the noming of noms in space: long-distance food. What happens when a quick resupply with a dip down into the gravity well of humanity’s crib isn’t available? What happens when we set up shop on the moon or maybe even take a road trip to Mars? Toward this end hydroponics and aeroponics have been tested on the International Space Station (ISS), the science of feeding all of humanity and feeding the distant humanity pushing innovation on both fronts. Doing it for an isolated spaceship alone in the dark is going to required next-level food innovations for space, and the resulting science will also help feeding people whose feet stay on the ground.

To that end, NASA is in the hosting a Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table.  This isn’t just recipes like they did for the 2021-2024 challenge; things that can be cooked in the particular conditions of no gravity, limited machines, air restrictions (think of all those Earth recipes with high altitude adjustments and multiple the tweaks needed by a thousand), etc. This is a full design challenge of a food system: things packed, things grown, things reused; a food system nutritious enough to prevent vitamin deficiencies and other health issues (scurvy anyone?) while not taking up too much duty time because during the long round trip everything outside the ship is going to try to kill the humans within the ship a lot, like a lot a lot.

“The challenge will officially conclude in September 2026 and has a total prize purse of $750,000.” Registration deadline is July 31, 2026. (NASA Mars to Table)

Interested in knowing even more? A small bibliography is below. I have also previously written about space food under Geeking Science: Do You Want Fries in Space and Geeking Science: In space they can’t hear you burp.

 

Bibliography

Cordell, Lyndsay. “Tang: The Orange Drink That Got Its Start From NASA.” Wide Open Country. 18 February 2021. (https://www.wideopencountry.com/tang-drink/ – last viewed 11/14/2023)

Hall, Loura. “NASA Back for Seconds with New Food System Design Challenge.” NASA. 13 January 2026. https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/nasa-back-for-seconds-with-new-food-system-design-challenge/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

Jones, Paul. “Aeroponics vs Hydroponics: In-Depth Comparison.” Seeds and Spades. 30 August 2023. https://www.seedsandspades.com/aeroponics-vs-hydroponics/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

NASA. “Deep Space Food Challenge (2021-2024).” (undated). https://www.nasa.gov/prizes-challenges-and-crowdsourcing/centennial-challenges/deep-space-food-challenge/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

NASA. “Mars to Table Challenge.” (undated). https://www.nasa.gov/prizes-challenges-and-crowdsourcing/marstotable/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.

NASA Space Tech. “Introducing NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table.” 13 January 2026. (available on YouTube, embedded in article above)

Geeking Science: Life as We Don’t Know It

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Predicted 3D structures of the ancestral nitrogenase DDKK complex from oldest to modern.
University of Wisconsin-Madison/Holly Rucker

The challenge for finding life OutThere is the chances of it looking like “Life As We Know It” is vanishingly small. That is because only a small portion of the life on Earth timeframe has been “Life as We Know It.” (And I am going to ignore the life at the bottom of the ocean which isn’t even part of the photosynthesis cycle in a parallel existence with “real” life for this discussion.)

Earth formed somewhere around 4.5 billion years ago, give or take 15 minutes. Single-celled life started in the 4.2 billion years ago. Photosynthesis, creating oxygen, somewhere around 3 billion years ago. (A lot of the search for life on other planets is looking for oxygen.) Multicellular life somewhere around 1.5 billion years ago. The first edge of “Life as We Know It” with plants and animals is around 600 million years ago. Mammals 220 million years go; something close to human 20 million years ago; humans as we know them between 300,000 and 800,000 years ago. (Wikipedia)

The expression “not in a million years” doesn’t even apply to all of Homo sapiens existence yet.

So how do we find life OutThere? How will we recognize the blueprint? Not just of intelligent life, but any life…a planet with the potential to function as a second Earth. We are talking about landing on and exploring a planet in the “life zone” orbit and not in the perfect 10% window where we would have a chance of recognizing “Life As We Know It.” We are much more likely to find a planet in the 1.5 to 4.5 billion year window where there might be single-celled life, or photosynthesis, or (if we are very lucky) the start of multicellular life.

Equally important from an exploring point of view is not only finding life, but taking a planet that doesn’t have a mature biosphere with plants and animals and develop it from life-not-as-we-know-it to life-as-we-know-it so it can be settled – the gold standard of “terraforming”.

Well, we might be one step closer. A group of scientists working together from

One. Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Two. Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Three. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA
Four. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

(See Rucker et.al)

dialed back the clock billions of years (yes, B as in billions) to get the modern nitrogenases precursors. Nitrogenases are organisms that take atmospheric nitrogen (N₂) and make it into something which plants and animals can use.

If you work with plants, you are familiar with their need for nitrogen. A lot of modern nitrogenases exchangers live in the root systems of plants, other just free-wheel through life without the symbiotic partnerships. (Gronstal) For nitrogen to be a building block for “Life as We Know It” it needs to be broken apart into singular nitrogens (modernly we (the plants and animals of Earth) like it attached in stuff like hydrogen; ammonia – NH3 is very tasty.)

“Because nitrogen fixation is critical for life as we know it, scientists believe that nitrogenase must have evolved early in life’s history, at a time when only single-celled microorganisms existed.” (Gronstal)

If we ever terraform, we will need these early nitrogen fixers to set up the building blocks for “Life as We Know It.” And until then, looking at rocks from other planets (like, say Mars and its leopard spots (see Geeking Science: A Leopard Never Changes Its Spots, but Life Might (1/15/2026)) to find signs of life.

I’m ready to find signs of life. How about you? Ready to Geek some Science?

Bibliography

Gronstal, Aaron. “Resurrecting Ancient Enzymes in NASA’s Search for Life Beyond Earth.” nasa.gov. 30 January 2026. https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/astrobiology/resurrecting-ancient-enzymes-in-nasas-search-for-life-beyond-earth/ – Previously viewed 2/6/2026.

Rucker, Holly R.; Kunmanee Bubphamanee, Derek F. Harris, Kurt Konhauser, Lance C. Seefeldt, Roger Buick & Betül Kaçar. “Resurrected nitrogenases recapitulate canonical N-isotope biosignatures over two billion years.” nature communications. 22 January 2026. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-67423-y – Previously viewed 2/6/2026.

Mahon, Elise. “Resurrected ancient enzyme offers new window into early Earth ad the search for life beyond it.” phys.org. 22 January 2026. – Previously viewed 2/6/2026.

Wikipedia. “Timeline of Human Evolution.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_evolution – Previously viewed 2/9/2026.

Wikipedia. “Timeline of Life.”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_life – Previously viewed 2/9/2026.

Geeking Science: A Leopard Never Changes Its Spots, but Life Might

Erin Penn Leave a comment

An annotated version of the image of “Cheyava Falls” indicates the markings akin to leopard spots, which have particularly captivated scientists, and the olivine in the rock. The image was captured by the WATSON instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on July 18, 2024.

Way back in July 2024, Perseverance found a rock with spotted with little circular discolorings in an old riverbed. Spots akin to leopard spots, a shape, which if found on Earth would mean life, microbial life but life none-the-less. Finding existence of previous life on Mars would be a HUGE thing.

Until life is proved to at least occurred once elsewhere, humanity doesn’t know if Earth’s living biosphere is a one-off fluke, or part of a possible larger web across the cosmos.

You would think scientists would be shouting this evidence of possible life from the highest mountains, but Mars isn’t Earth and the circles could mean anything. The first thing is to figure if there is any other way the rock could be discolored in this manner. Any rock formation process. Any geological process. Any weather process. Scientists have spent a year investigating.

And found nothing to discount their sacred search for life.

But still, to declare “life” (or even “compelling potential biosignature”) without examining the actual source isn’t part of a rigorous scientific process. If only the scientists could examine the rock directly…

Perseverance took a sample of the rock and stored it away in a little rock collection to be picked up and returned to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return program. Such a diligent little Rover; its beautiful rock collection all packaged up to return in 2033.

By Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=170682645
Core Sample #22 – “Sapphire Canyon” is the one with the “leopard spots” – second from right on the bottom

Well, life on Earth has changed and is changing. The plan to return a bunch of rocks isn’t flashy for politics, so the program is on the cutting board. All the work by Perseverance, a collection of dozens of small samples, waiting to be shown off to its parental-creators is likely to sit waiting, maybe forever. Plans change.

A leopard never changes its spots, but life does.

Bibliography

Holt, Cassian. “Mars leopard spots just popped up, and they resemble life signatures.” MSN.com. 5 January 2026. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/mars-leopard-spots-just-popped-up-and-they-resemble-life-signatures/ar-AA1TCd5H – last viewed 1/15/2026.

Kuthunur, Sharmila. “’Poppy seeds’ and ‘leopard spots’ on Mars could hit at ancient microbial life.” Space.com. 14 March 2025. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/search-for-life/poppy-seeds-and-leopard-spots-on-mars-could-hint-at-ancient-microbial-life – last viewed 1/15/2026.

Morelle, Rebecca. “Life on Mars? ‘Leopard-spot’ rocks could be biggest clue yet.” BBC. 10 September 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd725pj0g9ro – last viewed 1/15/2026.

NASA/JPL-Caltech. “Perseverance Finds a Rock with ‘Leopard Spots.’” NASA. 25 July 2024. https://science.nasa.gov/resource/perseverance-finds-a-rock-with-leopard-spots/ – last viewed 1/15/2026.

Nye, Bill. “New Findings Underscore Why We Must Explore.” The Planetary Report: A magazine of the Planetary Society. December 2026 V. 45, N. 04.

Pearson, Ezzy. “These strange markings are the ‘clearest sign’ of aliens on Mars, say NASA.” BBC Science Focus. 21 September 2025. https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/leopard-spots-alien-life-mars – last viewed 1/15/2026.

Wikipedia. “NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA-ESA_Mars_Sample_Return – last viewed 1/15/2026.

Geeking Science: Tumbleweed Rovers

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Pink Lady in the Negev Desert, credit to OEWF/AMADEE20.

Exploring space is challenging, especially on a budget, but the challenge can bring innovations. For example, instead of robots landing on Mars under a controlled descent, they now bounce some of them, saving fuel and materials, devoting the weight to better things. If you want to learn more about landings on Mars, check out Nasa’s article on “How We Land on Mars”. ( https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/programs/mars-exploration/mission-timeline/how-we-land-on-mars/ )

After landing, the next question is how to explore the planet. Ever present-telescopes and satellites provide a lot of information, but to really get to know a planet, you need to get in the dirt. The first Mars landers stayed in place. Next came the wonderfully determined rovers. Most recently humans have added drones, little hovercraft, atmosphere permitting – which Mars does have, as our eyes on planets far away. (9/21/2023 Geeking Science: Drone Ingenuity) Earlier this year, I talked about the development of wormlike rovers to explore ice planets (2/20/2025 Geeking Science: EELS) and a variation on space RVing, taking the laboratory with you. (4/23/2025 Geeking Science: T is for Toyota RV Lunar Life)

The most recent innovation – blowing in the wind. The “rover” is a tumbleweed with minor control having a weight encouraging the device to roll one way or the other in the wind. Instead of rovers measuring progress in inches a day, or even yards with the wonderful Ingenuity, these sixteen-foot spheres may average 0.22 miles per hour. Scientists say under optimal conditions, a tumbleweed rover may cover as much as 1,740 miles. (Mendenhall) Although, the expectation is to average 250 miles in the 100 sol life expectency.  To put this in perspective, hard-working Opportunity traveled 28.1 miles total (Beck).

Because of the small, light size of the design, the Tumbleweed Mission doesn’t plan to drop one or two rovers, but a swarm of ninety of them. (Kingsnorth) Some will be dropped randomly providing maps for future explorations and settlements. Some may be dropped in “hill country”, places where rovers can’t climb, but look like water has flowed. Plans are still being formed.

These designs have been in the works over fifteen years. (Discover) They have reached the concept testing point of wind tunnels and live tests (under Earth’s gravity and wind). Next trip out to Mars, funding permitting here in America or in one of the other National space agencies like EU or Japan or China, might scatter this wind-blown explorers.

Isn’t science amazing?

 

Bibliography 

Beck, Kellen. “Every rover, rankled by distance traveled on the moon and Mars.” Mashable.com. 2021 August 14. https://mashable.com/article/moon-mars-rover-distance-driven – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

Cooper, Keith. “Tumbleweed-inspired Mars rovers could be blown across the Red Planet.” Space.com. 2025 September 30. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/mars-rovers/tumbleweed-inspired-mars-rovers-could-be-blown-across-the-red-planet – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

Discover. “Tumbleweed Rovers Could Explore Mars.” 2010-ish (says 15 years ago). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JQyPKLCYPQ – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

Europlanet. “Press Release: Tumbleweed Rover Tests Demonstrate Transformative Technology for Low-Cost Mars Exploration.” https://www.europlanet.org/epsc-dps2025-tumbleweed-rover-tests-demonstrate-transformative-technology-for-low-cost-mars-exploration/ – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

JPL. “Tumbleweed Rover Concept for in situ Martian Exploration.” Nasa.gov. (undated) https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/what-we-do/research-tasks/tumbleweed-rover-concept-for-in-situ-martian-exploration/ – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

Kingsnorth, James, et. al. “A Swarm of Wind-Driven Tumbleweed Rovers for in-situ Mapping of Radiation, Water‑Equivalent Hydrogen and Magnetic Fields on Mars.” Europlanet – Division for Planetary Sciences. https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/EPSC-DPS2025-1779.html – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

Mendenhall, Brooks. “The wind-driven future of Mars exploration.” MSN.com. 2o25 October. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-wind-driven-future-of-mars-exploration/ar-AA1NOXYu – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

Nasa. “How We Land On Mars.” Nasa.gov. undated (likely updated after each new landing on Mars). https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/programs/mars-exploration/mission-timeline/how-we-land-on-mars/ – Last viewed 10/9/2025.

Team Tumbleweed. “The Next Generation of Mars Exploration.” Website. https://www.teamtumbleweed.eu/mars/ – Last viewed 10/9/2025.