flâneur

How to make a microbe for Mars, one step at a time

pioneerlabs.substack.com · 903 words · saved by 1 readers

Our mission is to create hardy critters that can make biomanufacturing robust, scalable and green — on Earth and beyond 🌎 🚀 A microbe that could grow on Mars would need to tolerate many extreme conditions that would kill most microbes we’re familiar with on Earth. In particular: 🧂salt - The dirt (or regolith) on Mars is very salty. 😵 perchlorate - Martian regolith contains 0.5-4% perchlorate (ClO₄⁻), a chemical similar to bleach. 🥶 cold - Organisms on Mars would need to survive low temperatures and daily freeze-thaw cycles. ☢️ radiation - The surface radiation dose of UV-C on Mars is very high, at 3 W/m2. A microbe growing outside on Mars must tolerate all of these extremes, which is quite the challenge! However, organisms can be partially shielded from the elements by growing them in indoor bioreactors or greenhouses. Doing so creates stepping stones toward a fully-outdoor organism, and is also independently useful for biomanufacturing and farming. As a first step toward an outdo

Our mission is to create hardy critters that can make biomanufacturing robust, scalable and green — on Earth and beyond 🌎 🚀 A microbe that could grow on Mars would need to tolerate many extreme conditions that would kill most microbes we’re familiar with on Earth. In particular: 🧂salt - The dirt (or regolith) on Mars is very salty. 😵 perchlorate - Martian regolith contains 0.5-4% perchlorate (ClO₄⁻), a chemical similar to bleach. 🥶 cold - Organisms on Mars would need to survive low temperatures and daily freeze-thaw cycles. ☢️ radiation - The surface radiation dose of UV-C on Mars…

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