In a news release by  North-West University (NWU), its Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences is set to launch space biology research in Africa through its new “SpaceBiology@NWU“ initiative. According to one of the project leaders, Professor Henk Bouwman, “This multidisciplinary research field, which will involve expertise from various NWU faculties, including engineering, will investigate how biology can contribute to sustainable living in space.”

“While humans are expected to return to the Moon soon, the colonisation of the Moon and Mars remains a distant prospect. Consequently, research is crucial to facilitate this endeavour. The production of essential elements like fibre, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, nutrients, and oxygen in situ will be pivotal in ensuring sustainable habitation in challenging and isolated space conditions. This means organisms must be sustained at productive rates, which implies functional ecosystems based on regolith. The only way to do that is to select and test organisms and communities under simulated conditions on Earth and replicate the experiments in space. Moreso, knowledge of how microorganisms, plants, animals and ecological combinations react in space and on the Moon and Mars is required. Africa has many harsh conditions that harbour organisms that may be candidates for space flight and colonisation on the Moon and Mars. Our deserts, poor soil areas, mine shafts, isolated islands, aquatic systems and other ecologies have organisms that can sustain and transform regolith into sustainable and arable soils,” commented Professor  Bouwman.

The increase in spaceflight and space exploration activities conducted by national organisations like NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and SANSA (the South African National Space Agency), international entities such as ESA (the European Space Agency), and commercial companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin have heightened the demand for space biology research. Furthermore, a pioneering study conducted by NWU has demonstrated that earthworms can exhibit average growth and relatively reproduce at gravitational forces of up to six times that of Earth. The next phase of the study aims to investigate their behaviour and functioning in microgravity conditions.

“One of the challenges we will be looking at is how to use microbes and earthworms to convert regolith to soil to plant plants. There are so many possibilities. We have the best ecotoxicologists in Africa, and we have so many exceptional researchers who can measure stress and the effect of stress on biological systems. I think we are perfectly positioned to conduct such research. We have the expertise at the NWU to research to facilitate long space flights and the future colonisation of the Moon and Mars. It may take many months to years to reach Mars, which requires about 1,4 tons of food per person. We will have to be able to grow our food in microgravity situations,” Professor Bouwman explains.

According to the Professor, the African continent is home to some of the harshest conditions on the planet, and the NWU’s expertise regarding ecosystems in these conditions is an invaluable resource.

“There are many plants, animals and microbes that not only live but thrive under these harsh conditions, and we need to exploit and harness our knowledge about them as we embark on this new adventure for our species. Just think of the many practical developments that can be brought back to Earth and have practical applications for conditions in Africa,” he concluded.