If recent news has made you want to leave the planet, then you’re not alone. There is research on creating offworld colonies in the solar system, with a focus on the Moon and Mars. Elon Musk is said to be planning a colony on Mars, sending the first colonists into space, assuming his Starlink satellite network doesn’t send someone to the heavens sooner. Getting people to Mars is relatively easy compared to keeping them alive once they’re there. For example, how will you grow food?

Where can you get a plot of Martian land to grow food?

In order to grow a Martian salad as authentically as possible, you’ll need some Martian soil. You can’t get real Martian soil. No Martian soil has been brought back to Earth and Mars doesn’t actually have soil, it has regolith. Regolith is ground rock, there’s no organic component that turns the rock into soil. However in a recent video on Tom Scott’s YouTube channel, Tom Carroll (of Aspect Science) experiments with a pretty good simulation of Martian regolith. So you can copy him and run your own experiments.