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According to a researcher who designed the world’s first space mining experiment, microbes could be used in future human space colonies by extracting metals and rare elements from rocks.
“You can think of microbes as miniature miners, if you want to, going into rocks and getting all of these good things that we need to build a civilization,” said University of England astrobiologist Professor Charles Cockell. Edinburgh.
If humans are to settle in space or on other planets, they will likely have to find ways to efficiently find and harvest resources in extraterrestrial environments. Mining will be a key technology in this effort.
Cockell said Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald that microbes are currently being used on Earth to extract valuable materials from rock
“If these rocks contain gold or copper, we can use the microbes to break down these materials,” he said.
This simple result was very exciting as it was the first demonstration of mining beyond the earth.– Prof. Charles Cockell, University of Edinburgh
Human miners crush rocks and add liquid – usually water – to activate dormant microbes in the ore.
Microbes then use chemical processes to break down the rocks – essentially digesting them – to access nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. Precious metals and minerals can be bacterial waste.
“Leachate, which is the liquid that comes out of rocks, contains the elements that you want to grab hold of,” Cockell added. These elements can then be easily extracted from the leachate for use.
On Earth, mining companies use bacteria to extract about 20% of the world’s copper and 5% of our planet’s gold.
Potential complicating factors in low severity
Cockell wanted to see if the microbes would do the same job in space. In 2019, he was able to send an experiment to the International Space Station to test this. He has just published the results of his study in the journal Nature communications.
The question of particular interest to him was whether the space station’s micro-gravity environment would cause microbial cells to behave differently in processing minerals in space compared to Earth.
His concern in particular was whether the absence of gravity would mean that bacterial cells could not move to the right places in rock and water mud, or whether it would disrupt the normal circulation processes that on Earth cause the mixture of fluids around rock particles. , which allows microbes to access it. Whether cave microbes would grow and reproduce in space was also an issue.
“Many people have shown that gravity affects microbial growth in space,” Cockell said. “So we were just testing whether Martian gravity and micro-gravity, for example, and asteroids would change the way bio-extraction happens.
Mining experience aboard the ISS
In their space station experiment, they tested three different bacterial species under different gravity conditions to mimic gravity on an asteroid or on Mars.
“We’ve spent several years designing a miniature biomining reactor. And it’s basically a little piece of kit that you put your pieces of rock into, in our case, basalt and your dried microbes,” Cockell described.
The basalt rock they used in the experiment is similar to what is found on the moon or on Mars.
Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano placed the biomining reactor in a miniature centrifuge which spun the samples to simulate different gravity conditions.
The microbes were then allowed to grow and feed for 21 days. The samples were then brought back to Earth for analysis.
One of the bacterial species they tested is called Sphingomonas desiccabilis, and naturally lives in the salt and rock crusts of the deserts. Cockell said he “was successful in extracting rare earth elements from rock”.
“This simple result was very exciting as it was the first demonstration of mining beyond the earth.”
He said what was even more interesting was how the microbes managed to overcome the problem of different conditions of gravity – perhaps by changing their growth rate – to eventually achieve the same concentration of bacterial cells. under conditions of reduced gravity than in terrestrial gravity. .
“What our experience suggests is that you can do biomining on asteroids or on Mars, just like you can do on Earth,” he said. “These different effects of gravity should not change our ability to do biomining.”
A step towards self-sufficiency in space
Cockell said he envisions colonies on the moon or Mars, or bases on an asteroid, and nearby there could be a giant processing facility where microbes could be used to help break down rocks in order to ‘extract the desirable elements.
However, one of the concerns with this technology would be the potential bacterial contamination of places like Mars where scientists are looking for signs of indigenous life.
“There is clearly a trade-off in there. And there is clearly a discussion to be had as to whether you want to use biomining or other types of mining,” said Cockell who added that there was much more research to be done before reaching this point.
He has another experience called “BioAsteroid, “which is expected to fly in a few weeks, during which the astronauts will conduct the same biomining experiment, but using a crushed meteorite instead of a rock similar to that of Mars.
Produced and written by Sonya buy
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