In-­‐Situ Resource Utilization on Manned Martian Missions Using Synthetic Biology

Promising new technologies are currently sought by NASA for: generating fuels to propel primary spaceship and supplementary personal conveyances; manufacturing components in space; replacing cargoes of pre-packaged food; developing redundant life support systems; tackling diseases and increasing the shelf-life of therapeutics and pharmaceuticals; sensing and monitoring radiation levels and shield strength with light‐weight apparatus; and recycling trash. Typically, the cost of these new technologies is reduced through In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), which consists of harnessing materials located at a mission’s destination. Here, cost refers to launch mass, usable life, required power, or payload volume.

This work investigates how synthetic biology can meet several of NASA’s needs. It reviews existing biological processes to demonstrate that they constitute a competitive yet non‐traditional technology that is capable of processing volatiles and waste resources readily‐available on a manned Martian mission in a way that reduces the launch mass of propellants, food and raw materials for 3D printing in space, and also overcomes the decreased product shelf‐life of a common therapeutic. The work employs these reviewed processes in designs for natural and artificially‐enhanced biological manufacturing strategies that can be leveraged to satisfy space input‐availability and output‐desirability constraints. It then analyzes methodological feasibility, technique versatility and the costs and yields of supporting apparatus and feedstocks, and compares potential future “space synthetic biology” advances to other new aerospace technologies.

When compared to non‐biological approaches, this work determines 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 3D 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. This proposed biological approach requires a few benign assumptions, such as complete nutrient extraction and recycling from the Martian soil; similar productivities in bioreactors on Earth and Mars; and an engineered acetaminophen productivity that is of the same order as engineered ethylene productivity when the organism chassis and the number of gene insertions are the same. The work recommends that near‐term synthetic biology and related technological efforts focus on improving bioreactor nutrient recycling percentages, enhancing bioproduction of alternative nitrous oxide fuels, bettering flavors of Spirulina, testing interlocking 3D Printed polyhydroxybutyrate blocks in habitat and furniture construction, and increasing biosynthesis efficiencies of desired outputs, including pharmaceuticals.