Researchers at the University of Bremen in Germany successfully cultured cyanobacteria under low-pressure conditions using only Martian-like materials. This breakthrough could enable oxygen production for the first human explorers on the Red Planet.
Agencies like NASA and companies such as SpaceX are planning Mars missions in the coming years. Due to propulsion limits and celestial mechanics, which align Earth and Mars approximately every twenty-six months, initial crews will stay on the planet for months—or even over two years—before return opportunities arise.
Transporting sufficient supplies for such extended missions is prohibitively expensive, as heavier payloads demand more fuel. Thus, future Mars explorers must rely on local resources to grow food, supplement rations, and produce oxygen.
Experts from the Center for Applied Space Technology (ZARM) at the University of Bremen investigated cyanobacteria for this purpose. While trees often get credit for Earth's oxygen production via photosynthesis, cyanobacteria actually perform the bulk of the work. On Mars, these microbes could generate oxygen, fix atmospheric nitrogen into sugars, amino acids, and nutrients to support food crops.
Mars' atmosphere exerts just 1% of Earth's pressure, too low for stable liquid water needed for algal growth. To address this, the team developed ATMOS (Atmosphere Tester for Mars-bound Organic Systems), a bioreactor with nine sterile one-liter glass-and-steel vessels. Heated and pressure-controlled to 10% of Earth's atmosphere, it contained Anabaena cyanobacteria in a mix of 4% CO2 and 96% nitrogen, plus artificial Martian regolith rich in phosphorus, sulfur, and calcium.
Testing nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria suited to these harsh conditions yielded positive outcomes. Growth was reduced compared to Earth but viable, proving it's possible to cultivate them on Mars using in-situ resources rather than imports.
This proof-of-concept paves the way for further refinements. "Our bioreactor isn't the final Mars system," explains lead researcher Cyprien Verseux. "But our results will guide its design."
Full study details appear in Frontiers in Microbiology.
