Break it down

If humans hope to visit and eventually live on other worlds like the Moon or Mars, we’ll need to learn how to utilize the resources we find along the way. A new experiment launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 25 aims to study a truly strange way to do that. BioRock will examine whether bacteria can effectively help humans extract vital materials from the surface of the Moon, Mars, or even asteroids.The process, called biomining , is already in use on Earth. In space, it could dramatically boost our ability to gather materials, rather than invest the money and energy to carry such materials with us. Gathering materials from our destination reduces the cost, complexity, and even (earthly) environmental impact of space exploration. The key to biomining off-world, however, is determining whether microbes that are used to Earth’s environment — in particular, its gravity — are capable of performing the same tasks under vastly different conditions. At the moment, scientists still know very little about how any Earth-based biology fares in these alien environments.We’re excited to announce Astronomy magazine’s new Space and Beyond subscription box - a quarterly adventure, curated with an astronomy-themed collection in every box.The BioRock study is the first to test extraterrestrial biomining by sending 18 matchbox-sized “biomining reactors” containing microbes and rock samples to the ISS.Based on previous work, scientists know that low or no gravity can affect how well microbes stick to surfaces, which is a key component of biomining. Microbes need to effectively cover the rock, creating a layer called a biofilm, in order to get to work.Researchers already know that microbes form thicker biofilms in space, as well as biofilms with unique shapes and structures. With BioRock, scientists are targeting microbes and materials they expect to use in future biomining operations. One such material is basalt rock, which is common on Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Basalt is also useful, team member Rosa Santomartino at the University of Edinburgh said in a press release , because it naturally contains spaces that will allow researchers to see how well the microbes can grow into the rock.The experiment will expose these matchbox-sized biomining reactors to different levels of gravity, including simulated Mars gravity and the general microgravity environment of the space station. A recent experiment applied a similar approach to testing how mice develop in different amounts of gravity.