Bacterial Cleansing & human bio-reactors

Designed by NORMALS

Description of chapter

This chapter introduces guests to the idea that microbes could be put to use in future human space settlements extracting metals and rare elements from rocks, according to a researcher who designed the world's first mining experiment in space. Bacterial mining is actually seen as the most viable approach to harvesting minerals in space, in fact  approx. 25% of the world’s copper is mined with bacteria. What if humans could become living bio-reactors and used to incubate bacteria that could be, in turn, used to harvest minerals from asteroids? NORMALS introduces the bacterial cleansing kit which includes a procedure of 3 steps:

  1. Cleanse unwanted bacteria with the spray

  2. Drink a probiotic solution

  3. Eat and absorb bacteria

The three elements in the ration have different properties. The first cleanses you of any undesirable bacteria. The second is a probiotic that prepares your digestive tract to become an ideal home for the desirable bacteria. The third contains the bacterial strains that can process the desired components from the asteroid.

Think of bacteria as miniature miners: scattered on a rock, they interact with the minerals it contains. It is a process that occurs naturally on Earth and contributes to erosion. Its power is harnessed in the practice of bio-mining, which uses microorganisms to extract metals from rock ores or mine waste, or to clean up sites that have been polluted with metals. Today, about one fifth of the world’s copper is mined with bacteria. Various bacterial strains — such as bacillus, thiobacillus, and pseudomonas — can convert inorganic components from asteroids into minerals usable for rejuvenating earth soil.

Asteroids are home to an abundance of such inorganic components. Your body is home to an abundance of such bacteria strains.

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