Inside one of the containers of this 40-cm-across miniature laboratory in orbit, a battle is set to start between asteroid-like fragments and rock-hungry microbes, to probe their use for space mining in the future.

The University of Edinburgh's 'BioAsteroid' payload is one of multiple experiments running simultaneously aboard ESA's Kubik - Russian for cube - facility aboard Europe's Columbus module of the International Space Station. It found its way to orbit via the new commercial Bioreactor Express Service.

The experimenters want to see how BioAsteroid's combination of bacteria and fungi interact with the rock in reduced gravity, including to observe whether characteristic 'biofilms' will be grown on rock surfaces, comparable to dental plaque on teeth.

The microbes could in the future be cultivated to help mine resources. So-called bio-mining has potential on Earth and in space exploration to recover economically useful elements from rock, as well as creating fertile soil from lunar dust.

Related Links
BioAsteroid payload at ESA
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tweet

Prepping for a spacewalk to install Colka on ISS external hull
Paris, France (ESA) Jan 13, 2021
Prepping for a spacewalk typically means diving underwater to rehearse and fine-tune operations. In 2016, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst performed such an underwater rehearsal for the Colka high speed radio, the brown box imaged above, that will be installed this month on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover will integrate the small fridge-sized device outside the European Columbus module during a spacewalk scheduled this year. ESA astronaut Andreas ... read more