ArticleNature communications2020
Space station biomining experiment demonstrates rare earth element extraction in microgravity and Mars gravity.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 140 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Microbial biomining from asteroidal material onboard the international space station.NPJ microgravity · 2026Article
- Microgravity-induced constraints on melanin bioproduction: investigating E. coli metabolic responses aboard the international space station.NPJ microgravity · 2026Article
- Emerging Chemical and Biological Materials Technologies in the Extraplanetary Environment.Nano-micro letters · 2026Review
- Bioleaching of critical trace metals byFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Extreme microbes for a changing planet and beyond.Sustainable microbiology · 2026Article
- Integrating resource utilization and bioregenerative life support systems for sustainable space exploration.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Searching for extraterrestrial life advances terrestrial sustainability.Nature communications · 2025Review
- A membrane Sabatier system for water recovery and rocket propellant production.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Cross-species comparison of ultramafic rock bio-accelerated weathering performance.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Synthetic biology for space exploration.NPJ microgravity · 2025Review
- Biomaterials for organically generated habitats beyond Earth.Science advances · 2025Article
- Biomining of lunar regolith simulant EAC-1 A with the fungus Penicillium simplicissimum.Fungal biology and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Lanthanum Recovery from Aqueous Solutions by Adsorption onto Silica Xerogel with Iron Oxide and Zinc Oxide.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A novel protein for bioremediation of gadolinium waste.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2025Article
- Article
- Unveiling the Bioleaching Versatility ofMicroorganisms · 2024Review
- Supercharged fluorescent proteins detect lanthanides via direct antennae signaling.Nature communications · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
31 authors at 8 institutions in 8 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microorganisms are employed to mine economically important elements from rocks, including the rare earth elements (REEs), used in electronic industries and alloy production. We carried out a mining experiment on the International Space Station to test hypotheses on the bioleaching of REEs from basaltic rock in microgravity and simulated Mars and Earth gravities using three microorganisms and a purposely designed biomining reactor. Sphingomonas desiccabilis enhanced mean leached concentrations of REEs compared to non-biological controls in all gravity conditions. No significant difference in final yields was observed between gravity conditions, showing the efficacy of the process under different gravity regimens. Bacillus subtilis exhibited a reduction in bioleaching efficacy and Cupriavidus metallidurans showed no difference compared to non-biological controls, showing the microbial specificity of the process, as on Earth. These data demonstrate the potential for space biomining and the principles of a reactor to advance human industry and mining beyond Earth.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.