Adelaide's River Torrens has, in recent years, earned a reputation for being about as friendly to animal life as the planet Mars is suitable for human living.
But the Torrens — or, at least, an aquatic plant that is commonly found on its surface — has been recruited for a study into how humans could one day live long and prosper upon the red planet.
Duckweed, also known as water lentil, is being touted not only as a partial solution to the problem of getting to Mars, but also to the problem of how humans survive there.
"People often mistake it for an algae, and think maybe it's an algal bloom on the water but actually it's more closely related to land plants like wheat and barley," bio-scientist Jenny Mortimer told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz.
"Rowing clubs are a bit annoyed by it, having to paddle through it, but actually it's a perfectly normal thing, it doesn't release any toxins so it's not dangerous at all."
Associate Professor Mortimer is running a project with PhD students at the University of Adelaide looking at duckweed's many potent properties, and its suitability as a form of sustenance for human life and basis of future civilisation.
"If humans want to do long-term space exploration — so going beyond the space station, but [also] maybe living on the surface of the Moon or even going to Mars — then one of the biggest problems is food, because you just simply can't take everything you need with you," Associate Professor Mortimer said.
"We've done some calculations and if you send a crew of four people to Mars, it's about a three-year round trip, that's 10 tonnes of food and that doesn't even [take] into account trying to make sure the food is nutritiously stable across those three years.
A bacon-flavoured all-rounder?
While duckweed may not necessarily conform with everyone's idea of what's appetising, it is eaten by humans in parts of the world, including south-east Asia.
Dr Mortimer said it has much to recommend it — not only is it high in protein and nutrients, it grows fast and tends to take on the taste of whatever environment it has been exposed to, which can be both a blessing and a curse.
"It tends to pick up the flavour of whatever it's been growing in," Associate Professor Mortimer said.
But Associate Professor Mortimer said there was no way anyone should be eating it from the Torrens, which has battled pollution in recent decades.
"You can actually [eat it] as it is. I mean, not directly out of the Torrens – I don't know what else is in there," she said.
"One of the things we're doing in my group is collecting different Australian strains to compare how they behave and grow."
Fresh or spicy in zero gravity
When scientists talk about making it to Mars, they tend to focus on the logistics of the journey.
Elon Musk once joked that he wanted "to die on Mars — just not on impact".
But just as big a challenge as the landing is the aftermath — and Professor Mortimer said duckweed could be part of the solution to the question of setting up a colony.
"We're also looking at a way of making other things out of it," she said.
While she conceded its use in actual space missions might be decades away, Associate Professor Mortimer said it could help with a more rarefied culinary problem.
Duckweed's capacity to absorb other flavours could again prove useful to countering menu fatigue on space missions and preventing weight loss, albeit in zero gravity.
"If astronauts lose weight, it's a huge problem because they are really sort of meant to be performing at the top of their game," she said.
"NASA — and this is the same in the military and all sorts of other places — they develop these highly crafted menus that are the right amount, of calories for these elite athletes who are astronauts, but people just get bored of eating the same old dehydrated microwave food.
