In the film The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) survives being stranded on the Red Planet by farming potatoes in Martian dirt fertilized with feces.
Future Mars astronauts could grow crops in dirt to avoid solely relying on resupply missions, and to grow a greater amount and variety of food than with hydroponics alone .
Soil on Earth is full of microbes and other organic matter that helps plants grow, but Mars dirt is basically crushed rock. The new results tells you that if you want to grow plants on Mars using soil, you’re going to have to put in a lot of work to transform that material into something that plants can grow in.
The perchlorate is a major problem. There are bacteria on Earth that enjoy perchlorates as a food. As the microbes eat the salt, they give off oxygen. If these bacteria were taken from Earth to Mars to munch on perchlorates in Martian dirt, then the organisms could not only get rid of a toxic component of the dirt, but perhaps also help produce breathable oxygen for astronauts.
The exact treatment required to make Martian dirt farmable may vary, It probably depends where you land, what the geology and chemistry of the soil is going to be.
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