Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Astroecology, Cosmo-Ecology, And The Future Of Life, Michael Noah Mautner

Chemistry Publications

Astroecology concerns the relations between life and space resources, and cosmo-ecology extrapolates these relations to cosmological scales. Experimental astroecology can quantify the amounts of life that can be derived from space resources. For this purpose, soluble carbon and electrolyte nutrients were measured in asteroid/meteorite materials. Microorganisms and plant cultures were observed to grow on these materials, whose fertilities are similar to productive agricultural soils. Based on measured nutrient contents, the 10²² kg carbonaceous asteroids can yield 10¹⁸ kg biomass with N and P as limiting nutrients (compared with the estimated 10¹⁵ kg biomass on Earth). These data …