I SAY WE ONLY PROCEED IF WE CAN DETERMINE IT IS GOING TO RESULT IN FASTER CPUS, LOWER GAS PRICES, AND POLITICAL STABLITY! HOORAY FOR IRRATIONALITY!

The idea is entirely feasible, but several obstacles must be recognized and overcome before you simply plant vegetables. Even if you had enough water, you still have to deal with the extreme cold. With temperatures ranging from slightly sub-zero, down to -90c/-200F you'll need a way to heat the 'garden'. Also, there is the issue of Mars' thin atmosphere. While the atmosphere is 95% CO2, which is needed for plant growth, it's nearly non-exsistant by being less than 1% of Earth's atmosphere.

The first thing that comes to mind is a greenhouse type structure. It would need to trap a lot of heat, and be able to withstand the extreme pressure difference.

But why are we planting asparagus in the first place? Not for O2 production (the soil is laden with Oxygen), and not really for consumption either. The Martian soil needs to be treated to support better plant life. So what we're really hinting at is phytoremediation, or using plants to alter the state of the soil by leaching and trapping certain substances from the soil. I'm no expert in this field, so I can't say which plants would be best. In the end, though, the goal would be to lower the ph to support common food stocks.

So, yeah, it's possible, but not without some human help.

This does sound almost feasable except for one problem. Mars does not have a magnetosphere. We would have to engineer a very hardy plant that could make use of the soil, the limited water and survive the excessive radiation. That's a pretty tall order from any angle.

so why do we WANT to even grow stuff on mars??? i say we go find some rare metal/ oil / semi conductors :P

EDIT: Semiconductors that will prevent electrons from jumping around too much and we can get like i don't know 0.00005 nm chips and overclock like mad

Most things that I grow prefer a ph around 5.5 to 6, not sure why 8 to 9 is so exciting.

Trying to find the proper info...

Time to sell short on asparagus futures.

Asparagus? Heck, unlike a lot of people, I actually like asparagus... but the much more pressing question is, can the soil on Mars support the growth of barley and hops? :)

Everytime I have asparagus, my urine smells extremely bad. It's not joke : (

One cubic meter? 35 cubic feet? That little lander collected a cubic meter of soil? That has to be a misprint, right?
One cc sounds more accurate.

Let's see, living on asparagus on Mars or under the Sharia on Earth. I think I would prefer the asparagus. I hope future generations will have the choice to live on Mousse au Chocolat on Ganymed , too. :)

Oh good. The martians will stink.

I kind of think being alkaline would be only a very small piece of the puzzle needed for growing anything. It might all be dried up AA battery residue for all we know.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the soil on Mars is not uniform. I love how news like this is so exciting!

Yum, Marsparagus!

Nom Nom.