While the world is marveling over the first images and data now coming from NASA’s Perseverance rover mission seeking signs of ancient microscopic life on Mars, a team of UNLV scientists is already hard at work on the next step: What if we could one day send humans to the Red Planet?
October 19, 2022
While the world is marveling over the first images and data now coming from NASA’s Perseverance rover mission seeking signs of ancient microscopic life on Mars, a team of UNLV scientists is already hard at work on the next step: What if we could one day send humans to the Red Planet?
There’s a lot to consider when sending people, though. Human explorers, unlike their rover counterparts, require oxygen and food, for starters. It also takes about six to nine months—both ways—just in travel time. And then there’s the air itself. Martian air is roughly 98% carbon dioxide (Earth’s is a fraction of 1% for comparison) and the air temperature averages an extremely frigid -81 degrees.
It’s these challenges that UNLV geochemist and NASA Mars 2020 team scientist Libby Hausrath and postdoctoral researcher Leena Cycil, a microbial ecologist, are exploring. And a big part of the answer? Algae.
„Extremophilic algae“ are types of algae known for their ability to thrive in extreme environments such as high-altitude snowy mountains or hypersaline lakes. These algae love carbon dioxide and can use it to produce oxygen. They also are edible, dense with nutrients, and grow quickly. Extremophiles‘ helpful characteristics allow them to grow in some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth, possibly even in conditions similar to Mars.
„If we want to accomplish long-term space exploration with people instead of rovers and robots, it will require developing a self-sustaining life support system—food and breathable air,“ says Cycil.
