UNM’s connection to exploration of planet Mars — a relationship that dates back to the 1970s — continues to grow. 

The latest Mars/UNM connection involves — what else? — growing green chile on the red planet. 

A proposal by UNM architects, biologists, computer scientists and engineers calling themselves the UNM CHILI HOUSE Team won first place in a NASA competition for design technologies. 

The UNM team’s winning submission uses small, simple robots and water sensors to water and tend to New Mexico chile peppers on Mars, the same variety of chile that will soon be growing on the International Space Station. 

Teaching robots to take care of plants is a big step toward having viable food source for astronauts when they land on Mars. 

“Astronauts will need to have freshly grown plants for nutrition as well for mental health,” explained Dave Hanson, UNM Biology professor and a faculty advisor for the team. “Ideally, fresh food would be available when astronauts arrive at Mars and maintained continuously on both the moon and Mars without human intervention.” 

The UNM team consists of five undergraduates, out of a total of 12 team members including graduate and faculty advisors, and draws from the departments of Biology and Computer Science and the School of Architecture and Planning. 

The team proposes using an inflatable dome covered with protection from radiation and small meteorites. The interior of the dome houses planter configurations outfitted with moisture and health sensors, which wirelessly transmit signals from the plant to a robot. When the plant needs watering, the robots collect water from a distribution point near the center of the dome and transport it to the plant. 

In essence, the plants are telling the robots when they need water, fertilizer or other care.

 “The on-plant sensors are working like translators for the plant. They monitor electrical and biophysical changes in the plant and provide an output that people, or computers, can understand,” Hanson explained. “We then program the robots to understand those plant signals or communications. It may sound far-fetched that we may be communicating with plants, but just imagine ways we might need to communicate with other life forms that don’t speak.”

On a scale of zero to 10, how nauseous are you? That question formed the basis of a UNM-based study of the effects of cannabis consumption on nausea symptoms, ranging from five minutes after consumption to one hour post-cannabis consumption. It showed that using cannabis results in an average symptom improvement of nearly 4 points on a 0-10 scale just moments after consumption, with increasing benefits over time.

Nausea, whether due to food poisoning, gastrointestinal disorders, chemotherapy or a host of other causes, is a common symptom but often difficult to treat. Cannabis has been used to lessen nausea for millennia, although its dosage and effects have been under-researched.

Although its effectiveness for treating chemotherapy-induced nausea is widely recognized, the use of cannabis for nausea remains under-researched in the general population, with no previous studies examining how quickly cannabis relieves nausea or how relief varies with product characteristics.

In a recent study, titled “The Effectiveness of Common Cannabis Products for Treatment of Nausea” published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, researchers showed that more than 96% of the study sample reported nausea relief within one hour. “Despite increasing clinical concerns regarding cyclical vomiting or hyperemesis syndrome in cannabis users, almost all users experienced relief,” said author Sarah Stith, an assistant professor in the UNM Department of Economics.

The study was based on data from 2,220 cannabis self-administration sessions recorded by 886 people using the Releaf App, a mobile software application designed to help users manage cannabis consumption by allowing them to record real-time changes in symptom intensity. 

The extent of nausea relief experienced by the study sample varied. Flower and concentrates yielded faster and greater relief than edibles or tinctures, while vaping yielded less relief than consuming cannabis via a joint or pipe. 

The study also compared the effects of THC and CBD among consumers of cannabis flower. Coauthor Jacob Vigil, associate professor in the UNM Department of Psychology, explained that “perhaps our most surprising result was that THC, typically associated with recreational use, seemed to improve treatment among consumers of cannabis flower, while our CBD, more commonly associated with medical use, actually seemed to be associated with less symptom relief.”