NASA may want to send bacteria to the Moon and Mars after all

[Mike Wehner]

• Research from the International Space Station reveals the benefits of using bacteria to extract minerals from material found on the Moon and Mars.
• One specific bacteria is capable of extracting rare earth elements from volcanic rock under multiple gravity conditions.
• NASA has historically avoided contaminating its mission with bacteria, but it turns out they may be helpful.

NASA has always done its best to ensure that its missions are as sterile as possible. Sending bacteria from Earth into space is a bad idea for a number of reasons, but new research suggests that certain bacteria may be useful. The research, which was published in Nature Communications, reveals that Earthly bacteria could help extract minerals from the material that covers the surfaces of the Moon and Mars.

The research, which is based on experiments performed on the International Space Station, revealed that one specific bacteria called Sphingomonas desiccabilis is particularly good at extracting rare earth elements from basalt, a type of volcanic rock that was used as an analog for what might be found on the Moon and Mars.

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NASA may want to send bacteria to the Moon and Mars after all originally appeared on BGR.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2020 at 20:14:32 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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