Can we use fungus to mine precious metals from asteroids?

A fungus aboard the ISS extracted palladium from meteorite rock, hinting at future space mining powered by living microbes.

As humanity pushes the boundaries of space exploration, one of the key challenges is how to access resources from distant asteroids. A recent study published in npj Microgravity has revealed ...

Most of the time we’re perfectly happy to keep asteroids as far away from us and our planet as possible. Every time one of them decides to show up for an unannounced visit, we get to have a really bad ...

A niche corner of the commercial space sector is attracting attention from United States national security planners, not because of its economic promise, but because of the technical problems it is ...

A mineral resources map of a section of the Moon produced by the US Geological Survey with data from NASA and JAXA missions The global race for mining and critical minerals is on. Through their Belt ...

China is accelerating its efforts in space exploration by enhancing research into space mining technologies. This move is part of the country’s broader plan to explore and harness the potential of ...

If humankind is to explore deep space, one small passenger should not be left behind: microbes. In fact, it would be ...

As witnesses discussed the benefits and challenges of space mining, members of the House Natural Resources Committee debated if they had jurisdiction on the topic. Credit: House Natural Resources ...

Space mining evokes images of massive sci-fi starships pulverizing asteroids. While that is still within the realm of science fiction, projects are under way to make commercial space mining one step ...