Fungal biomining – In-situ resource utilization in spaceUtilizing fungi to help establish resource – efficient space missions

Kurzfassung

Filamentous fungi are powerful microorganisms for biotechnological applications. They are well-established cell factories for the production of organic acids, enzymes, and antibiotics. With the prospect of human colonization on celestial bodies such as on the Moon and Mars, the sustainability of space missions is of greater relevance and immediacy. As fungi take little demand and are tolerant towards extreme environmental conditions, it is only logical to consider them for in-situ resource utilization applications for space research. For future missions to terrestrial-like bodies such as Mars and the Moon, with surfaces that are covered abundantly with regolith, it is of high importance to establish sustainable mining applications since these bodies are great sources for ore retrieval, which is especially important since resupply missions are expensive. This study used Aspergillus simplicissimum as a model organism to determine the suitability of filamentous fungi for biomining approaches. We were able to show that our fungal species was capable of growing under simulated microgravity conditions, as well as in the presence of Lunar Highland Simulant 1 (LHS-1) and the European Astronaut Centre Lunar Regolith Simulant (EAC-1A). Moreover, we were able to show that fungi are capable of extracting minerals and metals from lunar regolith simulants. The analysis of precipitated metals, as well as the ICP-MS analysis of the leachate, showed that several metals were dissolved in the liquid phase. The suitability of microorganisms for biomining is well known. However, to date, only applications for bacteria have been studied extensively and industrially established. This study shows that A. simplicissimum and other filamentous fungi are very promising candidates for ISRU applications in space.