Blue-green algae could help keep humans alive on Mars, says study

Mars may t have a lot going on at moment life-wise, however, dusty red planet may t be as inhospitable as it seems. A recent experiment has shown that cyabacteria, also kwn as blue-green algae, can successfully grow in Martian atmospheric conditions. According to a study, published in EurekAlert, scientists have said that experiment is a significant step towards cyabacteria-based life support systems for human habitats when we finally make our way over re.

Cyprien Verseux, an astrobiologist at University of Bremen in Germany, said, “Here we show that cyabacteria can use gases available in Martian atmosphere, at low total pressure, as ir source of carbon and nitrogen. Under se conditions, cyabacteria kept ir ability to grow in water containing only Mars-like dust and could still be used for feeding or microbes. This could help make long-term missions to Mars sustainable”. 

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‘Cyabacteria boom’

Cyabacteria are quite dominant in ir habitat, even to point of killing or organisms with toxins. Yet y are crucial for life on Earth. Scientists believe that a ‘cyabacteria boom’ 2.4 million years ago was largely responsible for a breathable environment. y said that when it exploded onto scene, cyabacteria pumped atmosphere with oxygen, dramatically altering entire planet. 

Keeping this property in mind, scientists w wonder if cyabacteria can be utilised to create oxygen on an oxygen-less planet like Mars. It is worth ting that all species of cyabacteria produce oxygen as a photosyntic by-product, and y are an invaluable source of it. If taken to Red Planet, cyabacteria could help fix carbon dioxide (currently 95 per cent) in Martian atmosphere by converting it to organic compounds and fix nitrogen (3 per cent) into nutrients. 

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However, Mars’ atmospheric pressure is a significant setback. Scientists ted that it is only one per cent of Earth’s atmospheric pressure, too low for presence of liquid water, and cyabacteria can’t grow in it directly or extract eugh nitrogen. researchers n decided on a bioreactor called Atmos at 10 per cent of Earth’s atmospheric pressure. According to study, it reverses Co2 and Nitrogen values and has water, which can be created by melting ice which is alrey available on Mars even though re is liquid water. 

system can be pressure and temperature-controlled. n scientists successfully grew plenty of cyabacteria in this system. To test success, y used se cyabacteria to grow Escherichia coli - as a test to check if Martian cyabacteria would actually function. As it turns out, y were fully functional. 

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