Mining bacteria could support human presence in space

Small pieces of basalt, a rock commonly found on Earth’s natural satellite and on the Red Planet, were loaded into each device and submerged in a bacterial solution for three weeks under conditions of spatial gravity.

The team’s results suggest that bacteria could improve the removal of rare earth elements from basalt in lunar and Martian landscapes by up to about 400%.

“Our experiments support the scientific and technical feasibility of biologically enhanced elemental mining across the solar system,” Charles Cockell, lead author of the article, said in a statement.

“While it is not economically viable to harness these elements in space and bring them to Earth, space biomining could potentially support an autonomous human presence in space.”

According to Cockell, experience shows that it is possible to build robotic and human-handed mines in the Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon, which has rocks with enriched concentrations of rare earth elements.

“[This] could be a fruitful direction of human scientific and economic development beyond Earth, ”the scientist said.