Team:Stanford-Brown/Biomining/Harvesting

Biomining

To colonize space, we need to extract or recycle metals as building materials. Flying up heavy-duty equipment for traditional mining is not viable economically or structurally. Bacteria are small, easy to transport, and can mine the same amount or more than traditional methods. They can be used to extract metals from sediment on solid planets, asteroids, or even metal electronics aboard spacecraft.

Our project focuses mostly on metal extraction from electronics recycling in space. Since most electronics, however, are covered with a thin layer of oxidized silica, we decided to tackle this obstacle first before delving into the actual metal mining.