Greenhouses on Mars NASA is researching the effects of growing plants on Mars -- as any base there would be required to be as self-sufficient as possible. Problem is however, plants have evolved to adapt to the environment on Earth, not Mars, and they start to act strangely when experimented under Mars-like conditions. Low pressure for example -- Mars has lower pressure than Earth -- plants don't like that -- they start to act as if they're drying out. Interestingly enough, this research has applications on Earth. Read a very cool article.