Magnetism, iron minerals, and life on Mars

The Dvaraka Initiative: Mars’s First Permanent Human Settlement Capable of Self-Sustenance

From the farthest reaches of the universe to our own galaxy, there are many different celestial bodies that, even though they are very different, each have their own way of being beautiful. Earth, the planet with the best location, has been home to people for as long as we can remember. Even though we cannot be more thankful for all that Earth has given us, the human population needs to grow so that Earth is not the only place where people can live. Mars, which is right next to Earth, is the answer to this problem. Mars is the closest planet and might be able to support human life because it is close to Earth and shares many things in common. This paper will talk about how the first settlement on Mars could be planned and consider a 1000-person colony and the best place to settle on Mars, and make suggestions for the settlement’s technical, architectural, social, and economic layout. By putting together assumptions, research, and estimates, the first settlement project proposed in this paper will suggest the best way to colonize, explore, and live on Mars, which is our sister planet.

Microbial diversity in Calamita ferromagnetic sand

Calamita is a black ferromagnetic sand from a marine iron ore on Elba Island (Italy). Its total iron content is approximately 80% and a major fraction (63% w/w) has magnetic properties. Desiccation, ultraviolet irradiation and the high temperature induced by the thermal conductivity of iron make Calamita sand an extreme biotope. We report, for the first time, the geomicrobiological characterization of Calamita sand, which showed a low bacterial biodiversity as determined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis. We retrieved sequences closely affiliated with uncultured bacteria inhabiting the harshest deserts on Earth. Radiation- and desiccation-tolerant bacteria from the phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Deinococcus-Thermus dominated the community. Heavy metal-resistant organisms, for example Variovorax sp. were also abundant. Sequences of organisms with an inferred metabolism based on lithotrophic iron oxidation were detected. The sands also contained thermophilic bacilli, which were cultivated at 60°C. These data provided important insights also into the biogeographical distribution of these organisms in the Mediterranean region. In summary, this study on Calamita helps to expand our knowledge of the biodiversity in extreme, iron-rich, environments.