Microorganisms are already used on Earth to mine elements of economic importance in rocks, including rare earth elements used in mobile phones and electronics.
Scientists in the United Kingdom spent 10 years developing a matchbox-sized biomining reactor for the experiment. In July 2019, the Agar devices were transported to the ISS on a SpaceX rocket. Small pieces of basalt, like many materials on the surface of the Moon and Mars, were loaded into devices and steeped into the bacterial solution.
The three-week experiment evaluated the potential of three species of bacteria to extract rare earth elements from basalt. Sphingomonas desiclabis, the only one, was able to extract rare earth elements from basalt under gravity (called zero gravity), gravity and scale like Mars, in all three different gravitational conditions. Conditions on Earth.
Findings from a study published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday show that biomining on the moon and Mars could be possible.
There is no lunar gold rush yet
Charles Cockle, a professor of astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the project, said it was economically feasible to mine these elements in space and bring them back to Earth. However, he said space biomining could potentially support the presence of self-sustaining humans in space.
“Our experiments support the scientific and technological feasibility of mining biologically advanced elements in the solar system,” he said in a statement.
“For example, our results suggest that the construction of robotic and human-oriented mines in the lunar Oceanic Procelarum region could be a fruitful direction of human scientific and economic development beyond Earth.”
“Microorganisms are very versatile and can be used to complete a variety of processes as we move through space. Elemental mining is probably one of them,” said Rosa Cento, a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Edinburgh’s University of Physics and Astronomy. Said. , Who worked on this project.
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