space

A Microbial Consortium for Life on Mars

Humanity has never given up on the dream of Martian gardens, and step by step, we are edging closer to that goal. One of those steps was a joint experiment by the D.I. Ivanovsky Academy of Biology and Medicine of the Southern Federal University (SFedU) and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Researchers assembled a consortium of ten microbial strains and sent them into near-Earth orbit aboard the Bion-M No. 2 spacecraft. Their aim: to see how a complex community of bacteria and fungi withstands the extreme conditions of spaceflight — heightened radiation, weightlessness, and heavy g-forces. At the orbit of 370–380 km where Bion-M No. 2 flew, radiation levels are over 200 times higher than Earth’s natural background and 30% higher than aboard the International Space Station. ... Read more