Bacteria can help you get back from Mars

Sunday, November 07, 20:23, 23:39

This is what the researchers hope to test several different ways to produce fuel on site.

Regarding NASA, we recently wrote that the first Artemis mission could come in February, followed by two more launches to return to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade. The space station designed by Blue Origin will also be completed by then, but in the meantime they will be working hard to get to Mars, in the longer and more complex missions required for it. A group of researchers brainstorm on-site fuel production to return, and now they are using several different solutions appeared.

Detailed published on the nature page in the material They explained that at the moment it is possible to start production on site, which is very good news because it will be required in any case. A big problem is that getting off the surface of Mars, getting to a low orbit, and the long voyage that followed would require roughly 30 tons of methane and liquid oxygen, but launching and delivering them would cost about 500 tons at an estimated cost of $8 billion—not to mention that transporting the fuel to Anchorage It is not the safest method. This may happen through on-site production, which in turn requires the initiation of certain biological processes, and not under ideal conditions, researchers are looking for a solution for this.

There are already indications that there is already a filter that takes into account the weaker gravity, and the massive amount of water ice, sunlight, and carbon dioxide, and building on it, could trigger a proper on-site process. They will feed the microbe by producing algae, which in turn will produce butylene glycol (2,3-butanediol), which is also used in cosmetics, although the right temperature must be maintained, as the average temperature of Mars is -55 degrees Celsius is not appropriate. Professionals will start the process in an environment of 25 degrees Celsius, which, although not ideal either, seems achievable, they also suggest doing this by combining 4 different units, with a goal of 95 percent purity.

An important obstacle is that NASA will not allow the transfer of microbes, but they hope that successful experiments will be able to convince officials until the real test comes after the tests on Earth.