The thought of space exploration brings to mind the challenges that explorers would face during the time aboard a space vessel and the challenges they would face once a suitable planet or moon was found to settle on. The challenge of maintaining a self-sustaining life support system on a long journey across space seems daunting. It is also unknown whether planets and moons in the far reaches of space would have life capable of supporting humans on its surface. However, the answers to both may be closer than we know.
Life capable of surviving the extremes of space, from the frozen moons of Jupiter to the Martian landscape, may be found right here on Earth. Extremophiles, first coined in 1974, describes organisms that thrive in the extreme ranges of environmental parameters, that would otherwise harm other organisms. Some examples of these extreme environmental conditions include thermal hot springs, sub-zero temperatures, and arid deserts. Extremophiles are currently being researched for use in biotechnological applications here on Earth and some of these microbes, particularly polyextremophiles, may be the answer to helping humans survive long distance space travel and for transforming inhospitable planets and moons into ones capable of sustaining human life.
Image 1. Proposed life support system incorporating microbes in various compartments as part of a cycle.
Chroococcidiopsis: An Extremophile For Space
Chroococcidiopsis spp., a cyanobacteria, is one polyextremophile that could be used for numerous biotechnological applications related to both human space travel and the terraforming of other planets and moons throughout the galaxy. This species has been found in Antarctic rocks, thermal hot springs, deserts, and hyper saline areas. Research has shown that it has the ability to survive in areas with elevated perchlorates and limited nutrients and can also survive high levels of radiation and long-term desiccation.
Image 2. Picture of Chroococcidiopsis, which one day might power Martian colonization. Credit – T. Darienko.
Solving Challenges of Exploration
Chroococcidiopsis could be used to solve the self-sustaining life support system challenge and the life-less planet problem.
- Extended Space Travel: Long distance exploration would require an advanced life support system and Chroococcidiopsis is an ideal candidate for fulfilling many roles in a life support system. It could be used to produce oxygen while break-downing waste from a human crew. Furthermore, it can also be used as a food source as it is rich in proteins, vitamins, lipids, and polysaccharides.
- Terraforming: Chroococcidiopsis research has indicated that it can obtain nutrients from Martian regolith while surviving elevated perchlorate salts in the regolith. It also has the ability to use carbon dioxide concentration methods to allow it to survive in where atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are limited. Chroococcidiopsis also has the ability to use far red light, which is beyond the visible light spectrum, to activate photosynthesis so it could be used in areas where the light spectrum is unlike that from our son.
Figure 1. Scheme of the ISRU process to produce useful materials on Mars (a) and focus on the production of microalgae or cyanobacteria in the biological section.
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/14/2/251
Researchers have been studying Chroococcidiopsis for biotechnological applications related to space since the Sputnik age of the 1950s and 1960s. So it is no surprise that researchers are continuing to delve into its unique abilities to survive different extreme environments including how it could be used in outer space.
The Final Frontier
Space is the final frontier and its vastness is mind-boggling. Humans are explorers and the universe is waiting for us to leave Earth and explore it. We will need to have the ability to sustain life during traveling and when we reach locations that may be suitable for human settlement. Our ability to use micro-organisms, such as extremophiles like Chroococcidiopsis, to help us achieve our aspirations may be the key to conquering the challenges that we may face in the far-reaches of the universe.