As of: February 10, 2024, 12:02 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Bacteria could survive on Mars, while humans cannot exist there without aids.
This represents a new challenge.
Munich - The visions of space organizations such as the US NASA and SpaceX founder Elon Musk envisage that people will not only set foot on Mars in the next few decades, but also explore and possibly even colonize it.
Musk in particular dreams that the red planet could become a second home for humanity.
However, recent research has now uncovered a possible obstacle for future Mars missions: Although Mars is hostile to life for humans, it can apparently be a suitable habitat for certain microbes from Earth.
Humans can't survive on Mars - bacteria can
On Mars, an inhospitable planet with deadly radiation, low atmospheric pressure and no water or oxygen, humans could not survive without special equipment such as spacesuits.
These conditions apply to the entire universe: where there is a lack of water and oxygen, there can be no human life.
However, this does not seem to apply to some bacteria.
Studies have already shown that bacteria can survive and multiply under conditions such as those found on meteorites and even on the International Space Station (ISS).
The red planet Mars.
(Symbolic image) © IMAGO/Panthermedia
A recent study has now examined the survival ability of four bacterial species (
Burkholderia cepacia
,
Klebsiella pneumoniae
,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
and
Serratia marcescens
) in a simulated Martian environment.
The bacterial colonies were placed in a box with simulated Martian conditions and typical Martian soil, also known as regolith.
Three species of bacteria survived on simulated Mars
Tommaso Zaccaria from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) tells the science portal
Science News
: “Initially we thought that the regolith would have a toxic effect on the cells and limit their growth,” adding: “But instead we saw the contrary".
Three of the bacterial species examined survived the experiment, with
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
particularly standing out - this bacterial colony grew particularly uniformly for up to 21 days.
Zaccaria commented, “It was pretty remarkable.”
The question that Zaccaria's research team now wants to answer is how the bacteria were able to survive in the hostile environment of Mars.
Zaccaria suspects that the bacteria were able to find enough water, nutrients and protection from the deadly UV rays in the crevices of the regolith.
The results of the study were published in the journal
Astrobiology
.
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How would the human body deal with the bacteria on Mars?
Another open question is how the human body would deal with these bacteria on Mars.
On Earth, the four bacterial strains examined live harmlessly in the human body, but can cause illness under stress.
This could be problematic because the human immune system is under stress in space - an unfavorable condition.
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