Biomanufacturing for Space-Exploration – What to Take and When to Make

Abstract

As renewed interest in human space-exploration intensifies, a coherent and modernized strategy for mission-design and planning has become increasingly crucial. Biotechnology has emerged as a promising approach to increase mission resilience, flexibility, and efficiency by virtue of its ability to efficiently utilize in situ resources and reclaim resources from waste streams. Since its infancy during the Apollo years, biotechnology, and specifically biomanufacturing, have witnessed significant expansions of scope and scale. Here we outline four primary mission classes, on Luna and Mars, that drive a staged and accretive biomanufacturing strategy. Each class requires a unique approach to integrate biomanufacturing into the existing mission architecture and so faces unique challenges in technology development.These challenges stem directly from the resources available in a given mission class – the degree to which feedstocks are derived from cargo and in situ resources – and the degree to which loop-closure is necessary. We see that as mission duration and distance from Earth increase, the benefits of specialized sustainable biomanufacturing processes increases. Here we present a strategic approach, guided by technoeconomics, to development, testing, and deployment of these technologies serves to nucleate the larger effort of supporting a sustained human presence in space. The processes needed for each scenario spans the technical breadth of synthetic biology to design engineering, from sophisticated genetic tailoring of chassis-organisms to building scalable, automated, easily operable bioreactors and processing systems. As space-related technology development often does, these advancements are likely to have profound implications for the creation of a stable, resilient bioeconomy on Earth.

Building Synthetic Cells─From the Technology Infrastructure to Cellular Entities

“…91 The attainable savings in up-mass can be huge. 92 Creating synthetic cells that are better suited to offplanet environments than naturally evolved life could be the key to life-support and in situ resource utilization for manufacturing of items with regular demand on long-duration space missions, such as food, drugs, and materials. 93,94 ■ RESEARCH ADVANCEMENTS TOWARD…”

Toward sustainable space exploration: a roadmap for harnessing the power of microorganisms

“…Plastics have become indispensable in our everyday life on Earth being used, for instance, in the construction, packaging and manufacturing industries. Beyond the common Earth-analogue applications, plastics, particularly those with high strength and durability, play a key role in supporting human activities in space, as components of spacecraft and spacesuits 16 . Most plastics are composed of organic polymers derived from non-renewable fossil fuels 83 .…”

“…The biggest impediment to progress on this frontier is the lack of deployable technologies enabling outposts, extended missions and, in the future, settlements, to sustain themselves through in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and maximised recycling of resources 5 . In addition to mechanical/physical/chemical approaches, biotechnologies broadly and microorganisms specifically will help enable long-term life-support and habitat systems' performance (loop-closure), as well as ISRU, manufacturing and energy collection/storage 6,7,[13][14][15][16][17] . Microbiological approaches can be self-sustaining with occasional monitoring and maintenance, owing to their resilience, and could overall require less energy than physicochemical approaches 16 .…”

“…In addition to mechanical/physical/chemical approaches, biotechnologies broadly and microorganisms specifically will help enable long-term life-support and habitat systems' performance (loop-closure), as well as ISRU, manufacturing and energy collection/storage 6,7,[13][14][15][16][17] . Microbiological approaches can be self-sustaining with occasional monitoring and maintenance, owing to their resilience, and could overall require less energy than physicochemical approaches 16 .…”

“…Selecting the most suitable bioprocess and most applicable microorganism for any given space application is non-trivial, as terrestrial technologies are rarely readily adaptable to the harsh conditions of space 18 . Therefore, extensive research and development are compulsory to increase TRL to the point where these technologies can be successfully implemented in space 16 . Finally, microbial biotechnologies aimed to increase the sustainability of space exploration may be translatable to Earth applications for advancement towards a circular economy, further supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11,12 .…”