Towards synthetic biological approaches to resource utilization on space missions

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the significant utility of deploying non-traditional biological techniques to harness available volatiles and waste resources on manned missions to explore the Moon and Mars. Compared with anticipated non-biological approaches, it is determined that for 916 day Martian missions: 205 days of high-quality methane and oxygen Mars bioproduction with Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum can reduce the mass of a Martian fuel-manufacture plant by 56%; 496 days of biomass generation with Arthrospira platensis and Arthrospira maxima on Mars can decrease the shipped wet-food mixed-menu mass for a Mars stay and a one-way voyage by 38%; 202 days of Mars polyhydroxybutyrate synthesis with Cupriavidus necator can lower the shipped mass to three-dimensional print a 120 m3 six-person habitat by 85% and a few days of acetaminophen production with engineered Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 can completely replenish expired or irradiated stocks of the pharmaceutical, thereby providing independence from unmanned resupply spacecraft that take up to 210 days to arrive. Analogous outcomes are included for lunar missions. Because of the benign assumptions involved, the results provide a glimpse of the intriguing potential of ‘space synthetic biology’, and help focus related efforts for immediate, near-term impact.

Ergonomic Challenges for Astronauts during Space Travel and the Need for Space Medicine

“…Secondly, let us assume that the technology will have been developed to achieve space travel at between 1/20 th and 1/10 th the speed of light, an increase in velocity of between 500 to 1000 fold of travel today and that multigenerational voyages are about to become reality [129]. We will have instigated many of the countermeasures for maintenance of healthcare for astronauts as described as above and we will have fully developed the necessary life support systems which demands efficient uses of all of our available resources to sustain a multi-national population [130][131][132]. We will have capitalized on the potential of a commercial return on the development of medicines in space not solely for space travel but for mankind on Earth [75,133].…”

Sustainable life support on Mars – the potential roles of cyanobacteria

“…Potential applications include the production of drugs, food, biomaterials and various industrially useful chemicals, metal leaching and food processing for taste improvement (Cumbers & Rothschild 2010;Langhoff et al 2011;Montague et al 2012;Menezes et al 2014;Verseux et al 2016). As most of these applications require relatively small culture volumes and no solar light, cultures could be performed under Earth-like conditions with reasonable costs.…”

“…Cultures could be used directly (Filali et al 1997;Godia et al 2002;Lehto et al 2006;Yang et al 2008) but also indirectly; for instance, H 2 O 2 generated from cyanobacterium-produced O 2 and H 2 O could be used to oxidize human wastes following a physicochemical process developed by researchers of the Institute of Biophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kudenko et al 2000); nutrients could then be recycled in cyanobacterial cultures (Tikhomirov et al 2007). Cyanobacteria have also been suggested for the production, beyond Earth, of various chemicals including nutritional molecules, drugs, bioplastics and cellulosic building materials Menezes et al 2014).…”

“…Synthetic biology may provide the tools for this. This field, or set of fields, aroused NASA's interest due to its potential for engineering microorganisms with useful features for resource production in space (Cumbers & Rothschild 2010;Langhoff et al 2011;Menezes et al 2014;Verseux et al 2016). In the present context, the use of synthetic biology tools and methods is investigated for optimizing the abilities of selected cyanobacteria to: (i) withstand environmental stresses faced during space exploration missions, and (ii) grow and perform biological functions of interest under on-site constraints (see Fig.…”

3D printing the future: scenarios for supply chains reviewed

“…Spare parts production is often cited in harsh environments, such as battlefields (Hargreaves, 2009) or in space, and by its nature acts as an on-demand production system. Aside from the work of Mcginley (2015), which discusses a different design philosophy for buildings which uses the design freedoms associated with 3DP production, the use of 3DP in construction is concerned with extra-terrestrial structures, which are highly specialized but will be required in low volumes (Rousek et al, 2012;Cesaretti et al, 2014;Kading and Straub, 2015;Menezes et al, 2015;Montes et al, 2015).…”