Martian soil

A massive volcano has been hiding in plain sight on Mars, says new research. Not only is its sheer size noteworthy, but the team believes it might also harbor glacial ice that could be critical for further exploration and Martian settlements.

If humans are ever going to colonize Mars, we need to make sure we can grow food locally. Now a team from Wageningen University & Research has found that earthworms might soon need a name change: these creatures crucial for making soil fertile, can thrive and reproduce in simulated Martian soil.

If all goes according to plan, in 2020 NASA will launch a rover to Mars to look for signs of past or present life. To help astrobiologists tease out biological material from other deceiving compounds in the planet's regolith, researchers suggest focussing efforts on finding the element vanadium.

Scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands previously tried growing food plants in simulations of both lunar and Martian soil. Although those tests proved unsuccessful, that wasn't the case the most recent time around.​

Curiosity's soil sample analysis reveals no surprises.