Patrick Reilly, CSM
Two years after a humble potato patch co-starred in "The Martian," scientists have found that fictional astronaut Mark Watney's strategy for surviving on the Red Planet could actually work.Early last year, a spud was planted in soil from Peru's Pampas de La Joya desert, which boasts the most Mars-like soils found on Earth, according to NASA scientist Chris McKay. The experiment, sponsored by the International Potato Center (CIP), took place in a CubeSat built by Peru's University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) with guidance from NASA's Ames Research Center.