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by tstactplsignore 3655 days ago
Haha, not even close. Besides the obvious low pressure issues with surviving in a vacuum that cause the membrane to become permeable, "electricity" doesn't replace all metabolism for these organisms.

They still need a source of the common and rare elements required for life (CNOP + several metal cations), a pool of hydrogen, carbon electron donors, and water. Basically on par with stuff that most microbes are going to use.

The metallic reduction reaction that the first species discussed uses: https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Dissimilatory_metal...

And for the second, which absorbs Hydrogen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogenotroph

This is a cool area of research, but everyone seems to have fundamentally overestimated what it means to the lay person.