A closed system experiment was carried out this year (February-May, 2005) to experiment with Othello cow pea and Texas pinto bean as possible crops for Mars On Earth®.

The cowpea variety (Vigna unguiculata) used was Texas Pink-eye (TXPE), supplied by plant breed researchers at Texas A&M University and the pinto bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) variety used was Grand Mesa, developed and supplied by Prof. Mark Brick of Colorado State University.

The data is still been worked-up, but the results look very promising.