Yes after examining, to seed some plaits would be an idea. Hmm wasn't there a science fiction that had that. They've sent an expedition to examine but don't recall the movie's name.

But then the oxigens gets blow away by solar winds?

"The difference, of course, is that plants can produce their own oxygen during the day using photosynthesis and, on earth, the amount of oxygen produced outweighs the amount of oxygen consumed but that is on earth."

Well -- why wouldn't that happen on Mars? There's plenty of light there.

I guess because at night time they won't have any oxygen?

This doesn't really matter though as I image crops would be grown inside greenhouses with human-breathable air for the farmers to breath :)

"I guess because at night time they won't have any oxygen?"

Ah. Well, yeah, that would do it. I thought they just only grew in the daytime...

no magnetosphere no party. sorry mates.

Artificial magnetospheres?

We will see Half-Life 2 Episode 3 first....

I think I was misunderstood. I am an avid gardener and am quite aware of a plant's need of oxygen. I also was thinking that any plants grown would need to be grown in a sealed greenhouse. There would have to be a small supply of oxygen brought along on the trip just for the plants, until they are strong enough to create their own. The point was that the number of plants needed to maintain the small crew will be far larger than the small crew's CO2 production. The martian atmosphere eliminates that problem. There will be an abundant amount of CO2 that can be piped into the greenhouse and the plants will produce their own oxygen, possibly enough to sustain the crew.

Also, there is no magnetosphere on the moon either, so whatever steps we would have to take to counteract this on mars, we would also have to do on the moon. The point is moot.

Earth-to-Mars: 50 million km [...] but apparently Mars can be as far away as 400 million km in distance

Having watched "Prometheus" again two nights ago, and having noticed the quote "I didn't travel 80 million kilometers to turn around now" which struck me as pretty close, does that mean we will meet the Engineers on Mars?

Joke aside, the images that they showed as "proof" for water on Mars that same evening looked to me like nothing more than signs of erosion in rock. Which may, of course, come from water, but may as well come from water that doesn't exist any more since a billion years, or something entirely different that was liquid at some point. NASA might of course have more compelling proof (which I'm not aware of and which I don't care much about), but what they showed on TV news was not all that impressive.

Only in summer, during winter this disappears. Fluid water might allow microbiotic life. If it's different to life on earth, chances are good the universe is full of life. Proably we will never be able to travel fast enough but find signs of aliens by high tech telescopes.

Who know about Half-Life. If it doesn't come this fall with Steamboxes, it probably has been buried by Valve.

Earth-to-Mars: 50 million km [...] but apparently Mars can be as far away as 400 million km in distance

Having watched "Prometheus" again two nights ago, and having noticed the quote "I didn't travel 80 million kilometers to turn around now" which struck me as pretty close, does that mean we will meet the Engineers on Mars?

Er, 80 million kilometers? Probably bad writing. LV-223 is in the Zeta Reticuli solar system, which is 39 light years away. That's about 3.69×10^14 kilometers. 229 trillion miles. I don't think we'll find any engineers on Mars.

Joke aside, the images that they showed as "proof" for water on Mars that same evening looked to me like nothing more than signs of erosion in rock. Which may, of course, come from water, but may as well come from water that doesn't exist any more since a billion years, or something entirely different that was liquid at some point. NASA might of course have more compelling proof (which I'm not aware of and which I don't care much about), but what they showed on TV news was not all that impressive.

What they likely didn't show on the news (or that you missed because you don't appear to much care about this) was the fact that the satellite passed over the same area more than once, and the streaks were not visible in the earlier passes. The big deal is that these "signs of erosion in rock" have been appearing on satellite imagery in modern times. That's why there's so much excitement - recurring slope linneae are evidence that something dynamic and interesting is happening on Mars, right now. Furthermore, they may not have mentioned on the news that the spectrography of the area confirmed that the actual material in those spots had changed. It's not merely erosion, it's a substance that flows and then disappears, leaving behind hydrated salts, and it's happening in the present day.

Er, 80 million kilometers? Probably bad writing. LV-223 is in the Zeta Reticuli solar system, which is 39 light years away. That's about 3.69×10^14 kilometers. 229 trillion miles. I don't think we'll find any engineers on Mars.

Might as well be bad dubbing, too. They sometimes do really really really stupid stuff there, but usually they only ruin the meaning of idioms and language jokes. But yeah, I was like "Wait, 80 million kilometers? Light travels at what, 300,000km/s so that's like 4-5 light minutes? And they need cryo chambers?"

I had a similar "Huh, WTF?" moment when they said "CO2 is at 3%, two minutes without mask and you're dead". Sure thing, 3% is deep within the "not comfortable" zone, but it's something you can support for days or weeks, if you must.

There is no drinkable water on Mars. It's filled with brine, which is just another word for salt water. So, I hope you enjoy drinking salt for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Tasty.