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Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials
In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is increasingly acknowledged as an essential requirement for the construction of sustainable extra-terrestrial colonies. Even with decreasing launch costs, the ultimate goal of establishing colonies must be the usage of resources found at the destination of intere...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8081250/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33909656 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249962 |
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author | Castelein, Sofie M. Aarts, Tom F. Schleppi, Juergen Hendrikx, Ruud Böttger, Amarante J. Benz, Dominik Marechal, Maude Makaya, Advenit Brouns, Stan J. J. Schwentenwein, Martin Meyer, Anne S. Lehner, Benjamin A. E. |
author_facet | Castelein, Sofie M. Aarts, Tom F. Schleppi, Juergen Hendrikx, Ruud Böttger, Amarante J. Benz, Dominik Marechal, Maude Makaya, Advenit Brouns, Stan J. J. Schwentenwein, Martin Meyer, Anne S. Lehner, Benjamin A. E. |
author_sort | Castelein, Sofie M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is increasingly acknowledged as an essential requirement for the construction of sustainable extra-terrestrial colonies. Even with decreasing launch costs, the ultimate goal of establishing colonies must be the usage of resources found at the destination of interest. Typical approaches towards ISRU are often constrained by the mass and energy requirements of transporting processing machineries, such as rovers and massive reactors, and the vast amount of consumables needed. Application of self-reproducing bacteria for the extraction of resources is a promising approach to reduce these pitfalls. In this work, the bacterium Shewanella oneidensis was used to reduce three different types of Lunar and Martian regolith simulants, allowing for the magnetic extraction of iron-rich materials. The combination of bacterial treatment and magnetic extraction resulted in a 5.8-times higher quantity of iron and 43.6% higher iron concentration compared to solely magnetic extraction. The materials were 3D printed into cylinders and the mechanical properties were tested, resulting in a 400% improvement in compressive strength in the bacterially treated samples. This work demonstrates a proof of concept for the on-demand production of construction and replacement parts in space exploration. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8081250 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80812502021-05-06 Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials Castelein, Sofie M. Aarts, Tom F. Schleppi, Juergen Hendrikx, Ruud Böttger, Amarante J. Benz, Dominik Marechal, Maude Makaya, Advenit Brouns, Stan J. J. Schwentenwein, Martin Meyer, Anne S. Lehner, Benjamin A. E. PLoS One Research Article In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is increasingly acknowledged as an essential requirement for the construction of sustainable extra-terrestrial colonies. Even with decreasing launch costs, the ultimate goal of establishing colonies must be the usage of resources found at the destination of interest. Typical approaches towards ISRU are often constrained by the mass and energy requirements of transporting processing machineries, such as rovers and massive reactors, and the vast amount of consumables needed. Application of self-reproducing bacteria for the extraction of resources is a promising approach to reduce these pitfalls. In this work, the bacterium Shewanella oneidensis was used to reduce three different types of Lunar and Martian regolith simulants, allowing for the magnetic extraction of iron-rich materials. The combination of bacterial treatment and magnetic extraction resulted in a 5.8-times higher quantity of iron and 43.6% higher iron concentration compared to solely magnetic extraction. The materials were 3D printed into cylinders and the mechanical properties were tested, resulting in a 400% improvement in compressive strength in the bacterially treated samples. This work demonstrates a proof of concept for the on-demand production of construction and replacement parts in space exploration. Public Library of Science 2021-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8081250/ /pubmed/33909656 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249962 Text en © 2021 Castelein et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Castelein, Sofie M. Aarts, Tom F. Schleppi, Juergen Hendrikx, Ruud Böttger, Amarante J. Benz, Dominik Marechal, Maude Makaya, Advenit Brouns, Stan J. J. Schwentenwein, Martin Meyer, Anne S. Lehner, Benjamin A. E. Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials |
title | Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials |
title_full | Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials |
title_fullStr | Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials |
title_full_unstemmed | Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials |
title_short | Iron can be microbially extracted from Lunar and Martian regolith simulants and 3D printed into tough structural materials |
title_sort | iron can be microbially extracted from lunar and martian regolith simulants and 3d printed into tough structural materials |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8081250/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33909656 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249962 |
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