The microbes could be friends of future colonists who live on land on the moon, Mars or elsewhere in the solar system and aim to establish self-sufficient homes.
Like the people on Earth, space explorers are also known as rare earth elements, which is important for modern technologies. These 17 elements, with terrible names such as yttrium, lanthanum, neodymium and gadolinium, are rarely distributed in the earth’s crust. Without the rare earth, we would not have the lasers, metal alloys, and powerful magnets used in cellphones and electric cars.
But mining them on Earth today is a difficult process. It requires the crushing of tons of ore and then the smelting of these metals using chemicals that leave toxic waste water behind the rivers.
Experiments conducted on the International Space Station have shown that a potentially cleaner, more efficient method could work on the other world: letting bacteria do a messy job of isolating rare earth elements from a rock.
Charles S., professor of astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. “The idea is that biology is essentially a reaction catalyst that happens very slowly without biology,” Cockle said.
On Earth, such biomining techniques are already used for 10 to 20 percent of the world’s copper production and in some gold mines; Scientists have identified microorganisms that help leach rare earth elements.
Dr. Cockley and his colleagues wanted to know if these microbes would still live and work effectively on Mars where the gravitational pull on Earth is only 38 percent of Earth’s, or even if there is no gravity. So they sent some of them to the International Space Station last year.
The results, published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday, show that at least one of these bacteria, a species called Sphingomonas desicabilis, is unconscious by different forces of gravity.
In an experiment called biorock, al samples were brought into orbit in a matching B-size container with basalt (a common rock made of cooled lava). Half the samples contain three types of bacteria; Others contain only basalt.
On the space station, the European space agency astronaut, Luca Permitano, placed something in a centrifuge in motion to mimic the gravity of Mars or Earth. Other specimens experienced the floating atmosphere of space. Additional control experiments were conducted on the ground.
After 21 days, the bacteria were killed, and the samples returned to Earth for analysis.
For two of the two types of bacteria, the results were disappointing. But s. Desicabilis increased the amount of rare earth elements rare in basalt by about two factors, even in a zero-gravity atmosphere.
Dr. “So to our surprise, without gravity, there is no expression that normally carries waste from bacteria and replenishes the nutrients around the cells,” Cockle said.
“One can then speculate that microgravity will stop biomining microorganisms or it will force them to the point where they are not biomining,” he said. “In fact, we didn’t see any effect.”
The results were somewhat good for low Mars gravity.
Payam Rasaulnia, a doctoral student at the University of Tampere in Finland who has studied the biomining of rare earth elements, found the results of the Byroc experiment interesting, but noted that the yield was “very low, even in land experiments.”
Dr. Cockle said Byroc extraction is not designed to optimize. “We’re really looking at the basic process that enhances biomining.” “But definitely this is not a demonstration of commercial biomining.”
The next SpaceX cargo mission to the space station, currently scheduled for December, will include a follow-up experiment called a biosteroid. Instead of basalt, the match bx-sized container will contain meteorite and fungus fragments. They will, instead of bacteria, be tested agents to break down those stones.
“I think eventually, you can increase the size of this to do that on Mars,” said Dr. Coc Cockle.
