Using Microbes to Mine Mars: The Future of Biomining

[@scishowspace]

This video was sponsored by Skillshare. The first 1000 people who click the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium: skl.sh/scishowspace01211

[@Joumawc]

Hmm, link seems to be only for a 14 day trail

[@BluishGreenPro]

Yep, 14 Days for me too. AND it charges you on the 13th day, so be careful of that and cancel beforehand!!

[@sahinyasar9119]

Well its probably possible to purify the toxic soil of mars with this method but i dont think its possible for a microbes to survive on mars to purify

[@TheWereparadox]

That has got to be... the dumbest idea.. wow not dumb. Insane. Anyone who uses that is either simple or insane as they obviously haven't seen enough to know that everytime people try to manipulate a living thing to do a "task" it only ends in a worse unforseen problem. Life does find a way... to be a problem for other things.

[@nanchoparty]

Humans: "Let's not introduce any foreign life into Mars and muck it up." Also humans: *"LET'S USE BACTERIA TO DIG ROCKS ON MARS!"*

[@zacm.2342]

I'm guessing they'd be used on already broken up bits of rock to avoid that - so mine some rock, transport it back to the base, and then begin the biomining. I think because we're not actually able to do it yet the SciShow team have just ignored that cause we need proof of concept before detailing the process.

[@fort809]

@@zacm.2342 this will be done my large corporations, since when have they ever cared about protecting local environments???

[@zacm.2342]

@@fort809 hopefully they will be regulated so as to force them to care

[@RobotShield]

Came here to say this!

[@altrag]

@@zacm.2342 Bwahaha regulated by whom? The initial Mars colonies (assuming we manage it at all) are looking to be started by large corporations and I doubt it will take too long for them to tell the US government, and eventually even Elon/whoever to shove it. I mean what are the cops going to do from 20 light-minutes away? I suspect there will be pretty much zero environmental protection once we get more than a few dozen people on Mars long-term. We can't even be bothered protecting our own environment on Earth where we know for sure that damaging it is risking our own survival. The chance that humanity is going to care about protecting the environment for some Martian microbes that _probably_ don't even exist is.. not high.

[@NewMessage]

'Micro Miners' sounds like a 15 minute show on Adult Swim.

[@michagrill9432]

At first i was confused if microcosmos now uploaded the second video IN A DAY 😂

[@doctorstrange1108]

Same dude😂💯💯💯

[@ptrkmr]

“...since we won’t be starting an off planet colony any time soon” *Artemis program cries*

[@belstar1128]

We will be on mars by 1988.

[@thstroyur]

@@belstar1128 That's too pessimistic: it will be no later than 1958, just after we figure out fusion power plants.

[@zacm.2342]

Said this in reply to a couple comments but wanna say this to those concerned about invasive species stuff: I think because we're not actually able to do it yet the SciShow team have just ignored that possibility for this video cause we need proof of concept before detailing the process. However, I'm guessing they'd be used on already broken up bits of rock to maintain quarantine and avoid releasing a new species to another world - so mine some rock, transport it back to the base, and then begin the biomining. Can't see it being done in another way if we are to leave any potential native life untouched - I'd be happy to be informed of other method's though!

[@shipofthesun]

"...could lend a hand, or..." I think the word you're looking for is "flagella".

[@khartog01]

Dwarves: "Now wait just a damned minute!"

[@danielculver2209]

Aw, don't be Grumpy

[@dlee645]

Sounds like microscopic versions of the Horta from the original Star Trek.

[@carlrobinrydbergh5534]

Had the thought that this would work well for the last few years, happy to see progress! :)

[@mho...]

There we go, my favorite SciFi thing, gets closer to become Reality! Tiberium's ancestors xD

[@FreeConscience2]

As always great video. Thanks. Any future plans on how the human gut microbiome evolves during long duration space travel?

[@CHIEF_420]

Good point. Humans should send animals (e.g. dogs, rats, etc.) ahead and monitor the effects on biology. Understanding them fully is essential before occupying other planets, especially because people are relatively fragile

[@tleilaxu42]

Dear Hank and John. Tell me about the time your brother blew chunks on whatever carnival ride is described at 3:40.

[@jessicaevans7847]

Any chance we could use this in tandem with like an electro-magnet in the L1 for terraforming? Like send some microbes that break down stuff there and release stuff we want to build up.

[@jessicaevans7847]

@@trr7fd it kind of seems like once we get our little propulsion issue in order, we should be all set to leave Earth and set up somewhere else. I vote for a skyhook on the moon, and maybe even a sky hook on Earth if we can make sure that we can regulate incoming and outgoing properly so it stays up. One of those would make launching care packages and stuff a whole lot easier and more importantly cheaper.

[@MixArtemiz]

Hey! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your content! My school has a French program and the English teachers and the students LOVE your content but the French half can't watch it. Do you have a translated channel?

[@kellydalstok8900]

Question: do microbes feel sick when spun around?

[@727Phoenix]

I was hoping for Hank's 'Journey To The Microcosm' asmr voice. Oh well :-/

[@_mortiam]

I never knew about Journey to the Microcosom! Wow, that's gold right there :o Thanks for mentioning :D

[@727Phoenix]

@@_mortiam funny I can help someone just by being a smartass😁 You're welcome.

[@sagacious03]

Decent video! Thanks for uploading!

[@mathieuleader8601]

I like to think all vampires are bio-miners

[@scmontgomery]

Now there's a damn good novel idea

[@konstantinos5042]

That even microbes are so well adapted to the universe implies its own recycling

[@Joumawc]

Great vid Hank

[@heavencanceller1863]

I only found out about biomining now and I love the idea

[@Deathscythe91]

hank : we wont start a off-world colony anytime soon elon musk : *TRIGGERD*

[@rhondahuggins9542]

2025 Microbes on Mars become self-aware...sue Earthlings for back-pay.🤑😆

[@ckl9390]

The microbes are already paid, in cheap sugar or some other form of "food" that we give them to make the process work. Sometimes it's necessary to pay the microbes first to have them cough up the valuable metals they've extracted.

[@Mic_Glow]

4:22 Elon would like a word with you

[@ardennielsen3761]

and so, if a mouse had a house on mars... it wouldn't be far off to say they would be able to jump over the roof, and flying squires could actually fly.

[@kelsqi-books4835]

I still love the giraffe shirt and I still want my own 😍🦒

[@pierreabbat6157]

Just make okapi of it.

[@illy9071]

2:37 You're mistaken to claim that with biomining, you would not have to haul large amounts of equipment up into space or between bases... The microbes aren't ants and they don't walk the material on their backs to wherever you need to be lol. The ore has to be excavated and placed into a reactor, so at minimum you need 1. Excavation equipment 2. Reactor 3. Transport between the two. The efficiency of biomining resides in its ability to isolate minerals without the use of expensive, fuel-using heat processes like electrolysis.

[@duwalagepasinduchamodyagun7552]

humans invests millions of dollars in putting a metal structure in to space humans: lets send bacteria that can used to mine metal

[@Remote_Ranger]

Idk if it's because I am going through the Dune series for the first time, but I can almost sense that we are going to some how evolve the creatures that can eat and then produce specific minerals that we require for space travel, and end up with giant Sand Worms on Mars.

[@heatherlee4366]

I cant watch hank without thinking of his pelican addiction anymore

[@joshuaidugboe214]

what

[@heatherlee4366]

@@joshuaidugboe214 Just watch his TikToks

[@nerdlingeeksly5192]

if the conditions on mars or the moon do affect the microbes we can just use crisper to make the microbes more compatible in their new environment

[@dadsfriendlyrobotcompany]

Synthetic biology will be the next step in subtly changing the most efficient microbes to be able to survive in harsher conditions. I hope to see the first steps of terraforming by the end of my lifetime.

[@Zeldaschampion]

Rare earth metals are needed for now but as technology advances, it may not be necessary.

[@WhiteCollarCrimeDNB]

Can you imagine how much labor went into flooding a mine back in the day?

[@ckl9390]

Flooding a mine was easy, just turn the pumps off and wait a week. Most mines are well below the water table.

[@Bbonno]

Can we get a rundown of available building materials on Mars, and whether ones known from earth would be useful there? Something like clay immediately raises questions...

[@kenhutch7727]

Astronomers spotted a galaxy dying after a major collision. It's bleeding out 10,000 suns' worth of gas each year.

[@DaBlondDude]

Could the 3rd type of have damaged by the G force of take-off?

[@mirabehn-stormysynapse]

As usual, you rock! However, a lot can happen in just 3 years.

[@lealta1481]

Can they mine some integrity for Trumpers?

[@nunyabisnes1058]

One mistake and those microbes get out and start eating the rest of mars

[@nv3981]

When I think of mining I think of Minecraft and those sweet bluish diamonds

[@stax6092]

Does this mean we could potentially send the bacteria to purify the metals on whichever planet then astronauts could come after and use them for construction? Cause that is what it seems like to me.

[@chocolad4221]

inb4 multicellular life evolves independently from stray microbes let loose on mars and turn into a race that rebels against earth

[@countfrackula6707]

Tiberium is the future of mining confirmed.

[@torlarsen2212]

Ladies and gentlemen, he's back

[@lcr603]

But I thought we were trying really hard not to introduce foreign life forms on other planets and the moon... this is confusing

[@limiv5272]

Just while we're still trying to figure out if life ever existed there, once we've got a good enough answer it won't matter and we can do whatever we like

[@thewritestuffindy]

SUGGESTION RE: UPCOMING SHOW. You should do a segment on the magnetar that just recently discovered about 21,000 light years from Earth. I would love to see what kind of fascinating info you folks could dig up on this amazing phenomenon!

[@Nanamowa]

It would be great if we could produce microbes that break down perchlorates in mars' soil and store the energy extracted from it in the form of some oil that we could then use as fuel. We'd have an incredibly vast supply of fuel on mars and we'd be making the soil less deadly.

[@WatchesTrainsAndRockets]

Does this explain the leaks in the ISS?

[@МихайлоСєльський]

Ok, I understand how this works in existing mines, when tunnels already exist. But how it supposed to work without boring equipment (ar they say) in non-existent ones? How one will guide microbes in direction needed?

[@KaoticWhisper]

:s is there a difference between centripetal force and centrifugal force? I thought centrifugal was technically a phantom force

[@7Alberto7]

You are not vomiting but leeching nutrient!😂

[@OmgEinfachNurOmg]

When I think about mining, I think about minecraft

[@lorrygoth]

Nice giraffes Hank.

[@GlenJackson]

Am I the only one that thinks @Cody'sLab needs to do an episode on biomining?

[@mackchris8280]

I was a pre-tictok hank Stan!!!

[@admiralnips8294]

I love me some space science.

[@Dirk_Berserk]

it's og hank!

[@noelhutchins7366]

I want to Green the Salton Sea in California in a way that majestically appeals for life to forgive mankind for thwarting waters course.

[@Beryllahawk]

Like those rides, yeah, the ones that make you vomit.... I am so glad I'm not the only person who tends to look at the spinny rides and get queasy without even going ON them lol The idea of microbe miners sounds like a major undertaking, but if it will augment supply and head off minor problems with our electronics then the time before we CAN start those off world colonies is diminished. (makes a smug music nerd face)

[@PoleTooke]

@4:25 I thought Elon Musk said he's making a city on Mars in the next 10 years?

[@Tiga_UltraSuperiorGojira]

Interesting, I’m all for replacing traditional technology with biological alternatives

[@RickMeads]

Anyone think that panspermia seems way more realistic now ?

[@Omizuke]

When I picture mining I picture GPUs and their inevitable price hike along with the suffering of all gamers hoping to upgrade their GPU "affordably"

[@chillsahoy2640]

Someone has not watched the Doctor Who episode, The Waters of Mars.

[@donsilastv4923]

Have yall seen this man's tiktok

[@ingridc0ld]

I want to be a part of this colony as long as it isn't like that one episode of Dr Who lol

[@FizzySugarStar]

Yah I'd rather not become some kind of water zombie thing

[@johnopalko5223]

I think we should give serious thought to fixing the damage we've done on this planet before we go haring off and ruining others.

[@john.harrison]

Because humanity as a race is incapable of multitasking? Its like saying don't fix poverty while domestic terrorism is still a threat. We can do more then one thing at a time.

[@horrificabomination]

@@john.harrison dude we can't even do the one thing right. I think we should give all our focus to fixing Earth. Step One: Eat the Rich. :p

[@user-hh2is9kg9j]

other planets are already ruined. I think you and I have different definitions of what "ruined" mean.

[@norvelled]

@@john.harrison We can, but we aren't.

[@john.harrison]

@@horrificabomination so bored with pessimistic hipsters thinking they have some great profound insight. The fact your not living in a cave fearful of death at any moment is proof we have gotten at least a few things right.

[@OOHDAT]

sounds cool. yet, how viable is it reallyyyy. every day theres a new video on what we are going to do in space and then that idea just disappears somewhere in the archives

[@FirstDayson]

with logic like that you must have had a lotta issues with peekaboo as a kid. you're aware that, even if it's not constantly in the public eye, scientific tests are still being performed? it's not like this channel is 'CONSTANT UPDATES ABOUT SCIENCE AT ALL TIMES'. it's 'hey here is this cool thing we found browsing through research papers'. sometimes it takes literally thousands of tests over years to reach a concrete conclusion, especially in a field like EXPERIMENTAL SPACE TECHNOLOGY. and for the cases things do get 'shelved into the archive' it's probably because people either figured out a) this isn't feasible with our current technology b) this isn't feasible period and we're wasting our time in which case, they still don't disappear. the information about whatever was tested/explored is sitting there, ready to be rediscovered by somebody with a new perspective or idea. acting like it just fades into the void, like it never mattered, is one hell of a weird view to take.

[@OOHDAT]

@@FirstDayson holy triggered much. this is a science channel that will post anything science related whether viable or not. its for the views. youtube is a business ash-hooooooooooole

[@OOHDAT]

@@FirstDayson and i never played peek a boo as a child. lol

[@osmosisjones4912]

You'll never guess how often me&Drix find bacteria mining teeth or even bone

[@horrificabomination]

Ah, nostalgia right there.

[@carnsoaks1]

Find? ml Modify, Edit, Synthesize. I Luv CRISPR

[@nicosmind3]

"We wont be mining on Mars anytime soon" *Elon Musk has left the chatroom

[@CHIEF_420]

Tbh, people worship him like a God, but his companies are 99.9% ran by OTHER people. I support many of his ideas, but recognize that he is still human. Also, realistically, NOBODY will reach Mars this century. Blasting humans there unprepared is a DISASTER waiting to happen... The moon is the first step 🌝

[@gadielgonzalez2755]

Was that a pun?

[@nicosmind3]

@@CHIEF_420 Well three things, Musk can and does work 100 hour weeks often, and spends much of his time on the floor and making sure everything runs correctly. 2 if its as easy as assembling the right people (which in itself is a skill) and just sitting back and reaping the rewards then most businesses would flourish. Where as the same group of people will thrive under one leader and fail under the other (speaking of genuis leaders you should learn the History of Julius Ceaser, his battles, how he handled government officials, towns folk etc. The man was such a genuis they named every leader after him in his honour). And lastly how Elon has set up his companies, especially Space X (the company i know most about) to how he runs his meetings is a million miles from most company setups in its field, especially NASA. Also Mars isnt as hard/hostile as most people think. Eg a suited woman can work 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 30 years on the surface of Mars before exceeding NASAs maximum radiation dose, which is a 3% increase risk of cancer. Cigarette smokers i believe would have trippled their cancer risk within that time. Getting to Mars is the hardest part, and we could have done that in the 80s if we would have kept up our momentum. Its piss taking how slow we've gone, but considering the advances weve made this century, especially Space X, using just the Falcon Heavy alone, we could send 11 cargo loads to Mars, at the price of 1 SLS (NASAs Space Launch System). And that would go a long way towards setting up a very small self sustaining colony

[@wiros8101]

This sounds like it has the potential to be a grey goo. Anyone have predictions on if it could breakaway, or if it's dangerous?

[@perrysanders2899]

I am the 1000th like yeya

[@cx3268]

Can we have a Hank-less SciShow???

[@ResortDog]

Who else listens to this and just hears mankind running roughshod over a virgin planet as if in an invasion of aliens to what ever is already there?

[@lewisrainwater9527]

Cryptomining?

[@GaasubaMeskhenet]

Maybe we should start recycling better. Eat the rich

[@RealitysVoice]

👍 Content 👎 Presenter

[@tonymac1305]

wet baguette

[@osmosisjones4912]

How using a Lazar✌✌ on an asteroid and another lazar to beam down the smoke unlike people living things beaming down raw materials is an existing concept

[@DigitalBhangari]

No dont

[@alsoeris]

No

[@osmosisjones4912]

Bacteria grow faster In lower gravity but can we test how cells divide in heavier gravity

[@norvelled]

Without even watching the video, this screams invasive species to me. Unless it is always under quarantine, I see it just going out of control.

[@essigautomat]

isn't every species on mars technically invasive?

[@norvelled]

@@essigautomat Every? You are saying that like it's thriving with life. I brought this up because if this bacteria got out, could survive in underground conditions, there is a chance it could evolve and mutate to thrive. As far as we are aware, it would have zero competition.

[@essigautomat]

@@norvelled sounds like a win for life for me, even if humanity and/or all life on earth dies out one day, I think it's valuable to have some life still existing and evolving somewhere

[@zacm.2342]

I'm guessing they'd be used on already broken up bits of rock to avoid that - so mine some rock, transport it back to the base, and then begin the biomining. I think because we're not actually able to do it yet the SciShow team have just ignored that cause we need proof of concept before detailing the process.

[@Ghennesph]

See I've been thinking this is a perfect way to terraform mars and other potentially habitable planets for ages. We could even just send probes with the microbes in them to potentially habitable planets to preemptively make them suitable to earth life, in ideal conditions, and if everything works out absolutely perfectly, and then maybe even make colony ships in space and shoot those off with enough food to last 6 generations of humans or whatever. become the true galactic parasites we always dreamed we'd some day be!

[@merlim5494]

Wtf

[@theOrionsarms]

Last month sciShow Space, bacteria thrive in zero g therfore are a danger to astronauts, this month :we don't know if bacteria can survive in zero g,???.

[@Dex0Milan]

So, apparently, no water, no air and ridiculous temperatures are all okay, but gravity is a problem... LOL

[@JasonKaler]

it will only happen within a lab, so gravity is the only factor you mentioned we can't control. We probably won't be doing much outside of any buildings because of what you mentioned + radiation

[@Dex0Milan]

@@JasonKaler in the video: we will need no heavy mining equipment, just some bacteria. In the chat: we actually will need all that equipment, and a big lab with controlled air pressure, temperature and water to process that regolith we will mine...

[@azwris]

I fully support this channel but this idea is very stupid..