Space
Mars buildings could be built using components made from bacteria
Bacteria could be useful construction tools when it comes to building cities on Mars.
Elon Musk recently detailed his plans for establishing a city on Mars. But before we take up residence on the red planet, we’re going to need some help laying the groundwork. Here’s where bacteria come in.
A special group of microorganisms, called Shewanella oneidensis, would make excellent helpers, says Benjamin Lehner, a doctoral candidate at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Shewanella belongs to a group of bacterium called exoelectrogens, which possess an unusual skill: They can produce electricity. But that’s not all. Lehner says the bacterium can also mine iron out of the Martian soil.
In 2018, NASA sent a batch of these helpful bacterium to the space station to see how well they thrive in space. Now Lehner wants to send them on to Mars, ahead of human explorers.
“In its natural form, we can’t use much of the iron in the Martian soil,” Lehner said in a statement. “But S. oneidensis has the ability to turn part of the soil into magnetite, a magnetic oxide of iron.”
That iron would then be used as building materials for future structures on Mars.
So how would it work? Lehner says that three things should sent to Mars ahead of any human expeditions: a rover, a bioreactor and a 3D printer. The rover would fetch batches of Martian soil, called regolith, then feed it into the bioreactor.
The Martian soil is rich in iron and the S. oneidensis loves to munch on iron, so it would be waiting in the bioreactor, ready to chow down.
The bacteria would then produce magnetite as a byproduct from the regolith. The magnetite would then be extracted and separated from the rest of the soil with magnets. Finally, the 3D printer would turn this raw metal material into a host of valuable parts for humans.
The printer could create any part necessary—screws, nuts, bolts—for building structures (including human habitats) on Mars.
So how much iron could these microbes realistically produce? Leher and his team estimate they could have a substantial amount in a few year’s time.
According to the researchers, a 370-gallon (1,400-liter) reactor could yield about 770-lbs. (350 kilograms) of the material each year. “After 3.3 years, it would produce more iron than can fit inside the capsule,” he explained. “By sending several of these unmanned modules to Mars, we can produce a good amount of iron in a few years’ time.”
Bacteria are advantageous because they’re self-replicating, can withstand the harsh radiation on Mars, and are cheap to transport. They only need one thing: food.
To that end, Lehner suggests sending microalgae along with the bacteria. These organisms live off of sunlight and CO2, two things that are plentiful on Mars. The microalgae will turn those ingredients into nutrients and oxygen, perfect for the bacteria.
But what if some rogue bacteria make their way out of the reactor? Would we then contaminate Mars with Earth microbes? What does this mean for the search for life?
“We want to prevent our bacteria from contaminating the planet, since that could hinder the search for life on Mars,” Lehner said. To mitigate any chances of contamination, Lehner’s team says that the bioreactor and any iron material produced needs to be safely contained.
SpaceX is ready to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts that have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months.
Last week, SpaceX launched its Crew-10 mission, which would dock onto the ISS late Saturday night and be the two astronauts’ ride home. Now, the end is in sight, and it appears both NASA and SpaceX are planning to have the two home this week, perhaps earlier than expected.
SpaceX readies to rescue astronauts from International Space Station
The agency and the company have announced that Dragon will autonomously undock from the ISS on Tuesday at 1:05 a.m. ET and should re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and splashdown off the Florida coast about 17 hours later.
SpaceX said:
“SpaceX and NASA are targeting Tuesday, March 18 at 1:05 a.m. ET for Dragon to autonomously undock from the International Space Station. After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately 17 hours later the same day.”
Crew-9 astronaut Nick Hague will be alongside Williams and Wilmore on the flight home, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov have been in space since Saturday, September 28.
SpaceX was tasked with bringing Wilmore and Williams home after the Boeing Starliner that sent them there was determined not to be suitable for their return.
A report from the New York Post in late August said that Boeing employees routinely made fun of SpaceX workers, only for the company to bail them out:
SpaceX bails out Boeing and employees are reportedly ‘humiliated’
Crew-10 will bring the astronauts home, ending an extensive and unscheduled stay in space.
SpaceX is readying to launch the Crew-10 mission this evening, which will bring home U.S. astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the International Space Station for nine months.
SpaceX is working alongside NASA to bring the two astronauts home, and all systems and weather conditions are looking ideal to launch the mission this evening from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
All systems are looking good and weather is exceptional for tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of @NASA‘s Crew-10 to the @Space_Station → https://t.co/VPdhVwQFNJ pic.twitter.com/wZ9LvZAnYn
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2025
Boeing was originally tasked with the rescue mission.
The company sent a Starliner aircraft to the ISS in late September in an effort to bring Williams and Wilmore home. However, malfunctioning thrusters and other issues on the Starliner aircraft prevented NASA from giving the green light to the astronauts to board and come home.
SpaceX was then tasked with bringing the two home, and it appears they will be on their way shortly.
The launch was intended to occur on Wednesday, but a last-minute problem with the rocket’s ground systems forced SpaceX and NASA to delay until at least Friday. Things are looking more ideal for a launch this evening.
The launch is targeted for 7:03 p.m. ET, but another backup opportunity is available tomorrow, March 15, at 6:41 p.m.
SpaceX writes about the Dragon spacecraft that will be used for the mission:
“The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew NASA’s Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station. This will be the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched the SES 03b mPOWER-e mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”
The mission will not only aim to bring the two astronauts who have been stranded for nine months home, but it will also conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.
If Crew-10 launches at the planned time this evening, it will dock to the ISS at 11:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night.
SpaceX is set to launch its eighth test flight of the Starship rocket this Friday. Ahead of the most recent test in what could be the most revolutionary spaceflight program since NASA’s Apollo, SpaceX is clearing the air about what went wrong during its previous test flight, which resulted in the loss of the second stage during its ascension.
On January 16, SpaceX successfully launched Starship while also completing its second successful catch of the lower-stage booster.
However, the flight did not go as smoothly as initially anticipated, as the company lost Starship’s upper stage roughly eight minutes and twenty seconds into flight.
Now, the company is clarifying what happened that led to the demise of the upper stage, which SpaceX has identified with the recognition of “flashes” that occurred after vehicle separation.
SpaceX completes second catch of lower stage, but loses Starship
SpaceX says that a flash was observed roughly two minutes into its burn after vehicle separation. The flash, along with sensors that was a pressure rise in the attic, indicated a leak:
“Approximately two minutes into its burn, a flash was observed in the aft section of the vehicle near one of the Raptor vacuum engines. This aft section, commonly referred to as the attic, is an unpressurized area between the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank and the aft heatshield. Sensors in the attic detected a pressure rise indicative of a leak after the flash was seen.”
This was not the only flash that was observed. Two minutes after the first, another flash was seen, but this one was followed by sustained fires in the attic. These fires caused Starship’s engines to perform a controlled shutdown:
“These eventually caused all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences and ultimately led to a loss of communication with the ship. Telemetry from the vehicle was last received just over eight minutes and 20 seconds into flight.”
SpaceX clarified that Starship was destroyed and communication with the ship was lost before it was able to initiate any destruct rules for its Autonomous Flight Safety System. The company said this was “fully healthy when communication was lost.”
It went on to say that the “most probable root cause” of the loss was likely due to an environment not seen during testing:
“The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system. The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship’s attic area and resulted in sustained fires.”
Nevertheless, Starship will launch for the eighth time soon, with CEO Elon Musk noting that the most likely date will be Friday. This could be the second of potentially 25 Starship launches planned for 2025.
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