The smallest space miners: principles of space biomining

Abstract

As we aim to expand human presence in space, we need to find viable approaches to achieve independence from terrestrial resources. Space biomining of the Moon, Mars and asteroids has been indicated as one of the promising approaches to achieve in-situ resource utilization by the main space agencies. Structural and expensive metals, essential mineral nutrients, water, oxygen and volatiles could be potentially extracted from extraterrestrial regolith and rocks using microbial-based biotechnologies. The use of bioleaching microorganisms could also be applied to space bioremediation, recycling of waste and to reinforce regenerative life support systems. However, the science around space biomining is still young. Relevant differences between terrestrial and extraterrestrial conditions exist, including the rock types and ores available for mining, and a direct application of established terrestrial biomining techniques may not be a possibility. It is, therefore, necessary to invest in terrestrial and space-based research of specific methods for space applications to learn the effects of space conditions on biomining and bioremediation, expand our knowledge on organotrophic and community-based bioleaching mechanisms, as well as on anaerobic biomining, and investigate the use of synthetic biology to overcome limitations posed by the space environments.

Cultivation of the Dematiaceous Fungus Cladosporium sphaerospermum Aboard the International Space Station and Effects of Ionizing Radiation

“…Due to the saprotrophic nature of many fungi, these microorganisms are able to utilize a breadth of carbon compounds and biomass for growth; on Mars, this could be cyanobacterial lysate and/or organic waste, both of which have previously been proposed as substrates for biotechnology (Verseux et al, 2016 ; Billi et al, 2021 ). While proven to help produce raw materials (Cockell et al, 2020 ; Santomartino et al, 2022 ) and feedstocks for consumables and durable goods (Averesch and Rothschild, 2019 ), biomanufacturing and bioprocess engineering for space applications are still in the early stages of development (Berliner et al, 2021a , b ). Nevertheless, fungi have already been investigated by NASA as a potentially enabling technology to obtain structural components through the application of mycotecture (Rothschild et al, 2019 ).…”

Ecological Drivers of Community Cohesion

“…An application of an extended consortium system, and a key driver behind the development of this model, would be predicting the outcomes of ecosystem interventions. For example, synthetic microbial communities with complex biological functions are being developed for fields in translational biology such as conservation, health, and exploration, from bioremediation and biodiversity restoration to space mining ( 67 – 70 ). We previously defined consortia with set inputs and outputs as swappable “ecoblocks” in synthetic microbiology ( 31 ).…”

Ecological Drivers of Community Cohesion

“…An application of an extended consortia system, and a key driver behind the development of this model, would be in predicting the outcomes of ecosystem interventions. For example, synthetic microbial communities with complex biological functions are being developed for fields in translational biology such as conservation, health and exploration from bioremediation, and biodiversity restoration to space mining [68][69][70][71]. We have previously defined consortia with set inputs and outputs as swappable "ecoblocks" in synthetic microbiology [27].…”