Andy Weir’s astronaut main character famously survived off of potatoes alone on Mars in the 2011 fiction novel “The Martian.” They’re starchy vegetables, which means they have ...

Smaller details about "The Martian," like the time taken to travel to Mars — which is close to 8 months — are also accurate. Even the science behind Mark being able to grow potatoes on Martian ...

One of Wamelink’s next big experiments is to perfect the Martian potato. Turns out, potatoes grow extremely well in Wamelink’s garden. But they just don’t grow to be very large. Wamelink ...

To grow potatoes he needs water ... but it does collect CO 2 from the Martian atmosphere and stores it in liquid form. It does this as one step in producing rocket fuel used later to blast ...

In the bestselling sci-fi novel and upcoming movie "The Martian," astronaut and botanist Mark Watney survives on Mars for over a year, largely thanks to his ingenious potato crop. But is it ...