Very tough microbes may help us cement our future on Mars
- Reference: 1767958929
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/09/microbe_martian_habitats/
- Source link:
A global research team has analyzed the prospects for biomineralization on Mars, a process in which bacteria, fungi, and microalgae can create minerals as part of their metabolism, offering a byproduct that could be useful to prospective Martian explorers by providing the raw materials needed to produce aggregates such as concrete.
With an extremely thin and mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere, air pressure less than 1 percent of Earth's, and temperatures ranging from -90°C up to 26°C, Mars might not be a hospitable place for most terrestrial life forms, but some microorganisms have been found to thrive in acidic lakes, volcanic soils, and deep caves.
[1]
Polytechnic University of Milan materials engineering postdoctoral researcher Shiva Khoshtinat and a multidisciplinary team focused on a partnership between two bacteria: Sporosarcina pasteurii – which makes calcium carbonate through the breakdown of urea – and Chroococcidiopsis, which can survive extreme environments, including simulated Martian conditions.
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The researchers propose a system in which the two organisms work together. Chroococcidiopsis releases oxygen, which helps support Sporosarcina pasteurii and produces an extracellular polymeric substance that can protect the latter bacteria from damaging UV radiation on Mars. Meanwhile, Sporosarcina produces polymers that help create minerals the authors think might be able to bind the Martian soil – regolith – to produce a material similar to concrete.
[4]Brit scientists over the Moon after growing tea in lunar soil
[5]China uses Mars orbiter to snap interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
[6]Rust on the Moon? Far-side dirt says yes, actually
[7]Mars' powerful whirlwinds blow dust everywhere, could affect future missions
The plan is then to use this aggregate to 3D-print buildings on Mars, the process offering the added benefit of producing excess oxygen to support human life, while excess ammonia could be useful in growing food.
There are some snags, though. Detailed analysis of the regolith will be needed to see if the proposal works, and plans to return samples to Earth from Mars have been repeatedly delayed. Recent reports suggest the Mars Sample Return program [8]lacks political support .
Even if the plan were revived, there would still be significant barriers to overcome. "Integration into life support systems for recycling waste gases, supplying oxygen, or generating construction materials requires comprehensive safety and reliability assessments," said the paper published in Frontiers in Microbiology.
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"Without integrated, long-duration testing in analog or space environments, the pathway from concept to application remains highly speculative."
Other proposals to make useful materials from extra-terrestrial soils [10]include the application of potato starch and a pinch of salt . ®
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/22/moon_tea/
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/18/rust_on_moon/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/08/mars_whirlwinds_dust/
[8] https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-s-mars-sample-return-mission-dead
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[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: A future mystery
Mechanoid City from Doctor Who The Chase.
This is a very cool area for research, but the problems are:
a) scaling it up to being actually useful for a future base,
b) performing sufficient tests in a representative environment to be confident of the results,
c) getting the funding to actually do the research.
I have no doubt with enough of c), a) and b) could be solved. But there is never enough funding for this sort of research. :(
Where do they expect to get the urea* from? I suppose Martian dirt might contain it but does the regolith?
* I guess a lot of detail has been elided here
urea
Felon Musk accompanied by a few barrels of the finest cheapest American vaguely-lager-like "beer" product ought to do that job nicely…?
Probably the best use for both.
"Where do they expect to get the urea* from?"
Astronaut wee? Seriously though, urea could potentially synthesised using carbon dioxide from Mars' atmosphere and from ammonium and nitrate salt deposits that have been inferred on Mars.
SLASH:1999
Tony's Beer?
Just reading Andy Weir...
There is a hint to a "tough microbes" source...
Lichen?
The trouble with lichen (© John Wyndham) is it grows slowly even in the most ideal conditions.
While bio-regenerating Mars would (sort of) almost certainly work, there is the slight issue of time to completion: it'll take thousands if not 10's of thousands of years to achieve anything useful. By the time it's done, we'd either have died out or will have had a better idea.
A future mystery
This offers a fun sci-fi premise- a planet full of seemingly random buildings with no signs of having ever been occupied, resulting from experiments with a tool like this that ultimately was never terraformed.