Cargando…

Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs

The future of long-duration spaceflight missions will place our vehicles and crew outside of the comfort of low-Earth orbit. Luxuries of quick resupply and frequent crew changes will not be available. Future missions will have to be adapted to low resource environments and be suited to use resources...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Keller, Ryan J., Porter, William, Goli, Karthik, Rosenthal, Reece, Butler, Nicole, Jones, Jeffrey A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8398003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34440588
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11080844
_version_ 1783744734525652992
author Keller, Ryan J.
Porter, William
Goli, Karthik
Rosenthal, Reece
Butler, Nicole
Jones, Jeffrey A.
author_facet Keller, Ryan J.
Porter, William
Goli, Karthik
Rosenthal, Reece
Butler, Nicole
Jones, Jeffrey A.
author_sort Keller, Ryan J.
collection PubMed
description The future of long-duration spaceflight missions will place our vehicles and crew outside of the comfort of low-Earth orbit. Luxuries of quick resupply and frequent crew changes will not be available. Future missions will have to be adapted to low resource environments and be suited to use resources at their destinations to complete the latter parts of the mission. This includes the production of food, oxygen, and return fuel for human flight. In this chapter, we performed a review of the current literature, and offer a vision for the implementation of cyanobacteria-based bio-regenerative life support systems and in situ resource utilization during long duration expeditions, using the Moon and Mars for examples. Much work has been done to understand the nutritional benefits of cyanobacteria and their ability to survive in extreme environments like what is expected on other celestial objects. Fuel production is still in its infancy, but cyanobacterial production of methane is a promising front. In this chapter, we put forth a vision of a three-stage reactor system for regolith processing, nutritional and atmospheric production, and biofuel production as well as diving into what that system will look like during flight and a discussion on containment considerations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8398003
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-83980032021-08-29 Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs Keller, Ryan J. Porter, William Goli, Karthik Rosenthal, Reece Butler, Nicole Jones, Jeffrey A. Life (Basel) Review The future of long-duration spaceflight missions will place our vehicles and crew outside of the comfort of low-Earth orbit. Luxuries of quick resupply and frequent crew changes will not be available. Future missions will have to be adapted to low resource environments and be suited to use resources at their destinations to complete the latter parts of the mission. This includes the production of food, oxygen, and return fuel for human flight. In this chapter, we performed a review of the current literature, and offer a vision for the implementation of cyanobacteria-based bio-regenerative life support systems and in situ resource utilization during long duration expeditions, using the Moon and Mars for examples. Much work has been done to understand the nutritional benefits of cyanobacteria and their ability to survive in extreme environments like what is expected on other celestial objects. Fuel production is still in its infancy, but cyanobacterial production of methane is a promising front. In this chapter, we put forth a vision of a three-stage reactor system for regolith processing, nutritional and atmospheric production, and biofuel production as well as diving into what that system will look like during flight and a discussion on containment considerations. MDPI 2021-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8398003/ /pubmed/34440588 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11080844 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Keller, Ryan J.
Porter, William
Goli, Karthik
Rosenthal, Reece
Butler, Nicole
Jones, Jeffrey A.
Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs
title Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs
title_full Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs
title_fullStr Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs
title_full_unstemmed Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs
title_short Biologically-Based and Physiochemical Life Support and In Situ Resource Utilization for Exploration of the Solar System—Reviewing the Current State and Defining Future Development Needs
title_sort biologically-based and physiochemical life support and in situ resource utilization for exploration of the solar system—reviewing the current state and defining future development needs
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8398003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34440588
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11080844
work_keys_str_mv AT kellerryanj biologicallybasedandphysiochemicallifesupportandinsituresourceutilizationforexplorationofthesolarsystemreviewingthecurrentstateanddefiningfuturedevelopmentneeds
AT porterwilliam biologicallybasedandphysiochemicallifesupportandinsituresourceutilizationforexplorationofthesolarsystemreviewingthecurrentstateanddefiningfuturedevelopmentneeds
AT golikarthik biologicallybasedandphysiochemicallifesupportandinsituresourceutilizationforexplorationofthesolarsystemreviewingthecurrentstateanddefiningfuturedevelopmentneeds
AT rosenthalreece biologicallybasedandphysiochemicallifesupportandinsituresourceutilizationforexplorationofthesolarsystemreviewingthecurrentstateanddefiningfuturedevelopmentneeds
AT butlernicole biologicallybasedandphysiochemicallifesupportandinsituresourceutilizationforexplorationofthesolarsystemreviewingthecurrentstateanddefiningfuturedevelopmentneeds
AT jonesjeffreya biologicallybasedandphysiochemicallifesupportandinsituresourceutilizationforexplorationofthesolarsystemreviewingthecurrentstateanddefiningfuturedevelopmentneeds