Microbes mine metals in space more efficiently
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This was discovered by a research team aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The finding is relevant to the potential extraction of raw materials in space in the future. Bacteria and fungi can extract certain elements from rock by metabolising them and thereby making them water-soluble. This so-called ‘biolixing’ is regarded as an ecological alternative to conventional chemical processes. An international research team led by Cornell University and the University of Edinburgh has now investigated whether bioleaching also works in space. The results of the experiment, which was carried out back in 2021, have now been published in the specialist journal ‘npj Microgravity’.
In the experimental setup, the team ‘fed’ a mixture of bacteria and fungi with meteorite rock. The experiment took place both on board the International Space Station (ISS) and in a laboratory on Earth. Specifically, the microorganisms were tasked with extracting palladium and ruthenium, rare metals required for the production of catalysts.
Digestion more efficient in space
It turned out that the microorganisms were more successful on the ISS than in the laboratory experiment on Earth. “The concentration of extracted metal on the International Space Station was higher than the concentration we obtained on Earth,” says Giovanny Rodriguez Blanco, a researcher involved in the project who now works at MedUni Graz. This means that microbes performed better in zero gravity than under gravity, as he explained to ORF Wissen.
“We still know very little about the mechanisms that influence microbial behaviour in space,” says the study’s lead author, Rosa Santomartino. Why microorganisms were able to dissolve the tested elements more effectively in space than on Earth remains a mystery.
The interdisciplinary research group has been investigating the influence of weightlessness on microorganisms for many years. As early as 2020, the group was able to demonstrate that certain bacterial strains can, in principle, metabolise rare-earth metals in microgravity.
New digestion products and mining dreams
Rodriguez Blanco, who analysed the samples in the laboratory after their return from space, also discovered that the microorganisms produced different metabolic intermediates (metabolites) during their trip into weightlessness than they did under gravity. The Graz-based researcher believes that the metabolites produced in space may possess certain properties that could play a role in the development of new antibiotics. However, further research is needed, Rodriguez Blanco emphasises.
The researchers also believe that this finding could play a role in space mining, which may one day become economically and scientifically viable. For instance, certain elements could in future be extracted directly from asteroids in space with the help of microorganisms.
Source: science.orf.at, 26 February 2026