Cyanobacterial Growth Optimized for Mars Promises Lifeline to Crewed Missions
Crewed mission to Mars
February 19, 2021
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In keeping with humanity’s quest to explore new worlds and boldly go where no one has gone before, leading space agencies are gearing up to send crewed missions to Mars. One of the many challenges of this mission is the production of food and other life-support consumables on site without having to import them from Earth.
In a new study, scientists at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), at the University of Bremen, in Germany, showed that it is possible to grow Anabaena cyanobacteria under conditions that are a compromise between conditions on the Martian surface and optimal conditions for cyanobacterial productivity.