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German researchers have shown that a bacterium can grow in soil similar to Mars and under simulated weather conditions on Earth.
And their findings indicate that we can grow cyanobacteria to produce oxygen and fuel for other life on the Red Planet.
The University of Bremen study comes as NASA’s Perseverance probe is due to land on Mars and start looking for signs of extraterrestrials on Thursday.
Scientists found that powerful bacteria could grow in bioreactors that could be used on Mars.
The bacteria will act as “pressure cookers” to increase the planet’s extremely low air pressure, while using only the nutrient-rich soil on the surface.
Lead author of the study, Dr Cebrian Versioux, said: “Here we explain that cyanobacteria can use the gases available in the Martian atmosphere for carbon and nitrogen, especially at low total pressure.”
“Under these conditions, cyanobacteria retained their ability to thrive in water that contains only Mars-like dust, and it can still be used to feed other microbes, which could help make the long-term missions on Mars sustainable, ”he added.
Researchers tested whether cyanobacteria could grow at low atmospheric pressure by developing a bioreactor called Atmos, which is an acronym for “Atmospheric Testing Apparatus for Organic Systems Associated with Mars.”
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