Team:Exeter/Description
Here is a quick introduction to the concept behind our project:
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"We have
to go to Mars.
This is important to us, a single
planet species might not last long.
If we're going to survive and flourish
as a species in the future we need to
to consider making this kind of trek,
and Mars is the place.”
- Dr Jim Green,
Chief scientist, NASA
1.
NASA plan
to have a human on Mars by
2030 as part of their Orion project.
Their mission aims to discover more
about Earth through its similarities
to Mars, answer questions about life
on Mars and in the universe,
improve our scientific knowledge,
and inspire and educate new
generations, creating a
better future.
2. On
Mars:
In order to survive on Mars we
must engineer a sustainable,self
contained life support system to
produce food and oxygen whilst
simultaneously avoiding contaminating
the Martian surface. Fortunately
Martian regolith (topsoil) is 1%
perchlorate, providing a
sustainable resource to
solve this problem.
3.
Perchlorate
Perchlorate salts are toxic
to humans due to their inhibition
of the uptake of iodine by the thyroid,
resulting in hypothyroidism
(Stokstad, 2006). Therefore it would
need to be removed from any soil
used to grow crops, but it might also
be possible to reduce perchlorate
into chloride and
breathable oxygen.
4. The
Approach:
The project has these aims:
1. Genetically engineer bacteria to
reduce perchlorate.
2. Harvest oxygen from this process.
3. Design a bioreactor to contain this reaction on Mars
The bioreactor aspect of project shall focus heavily on human practices
and stakeholder input.
5. The
Bioreactor:
In order for our bioreactor
to be functional for use in space,
it needs to be:
energy efficient, robust,
lightweight and sustainable over long
periods of time, without human input.
The swirl flow bioreactor concept
ticks all of these boxes, as seen
on our bioreactor page.
6.2. Human
Practices:
Throughout our bioreactor
design process we strove to
include relevant stakeholders in
development of an effective concept.
This resulted in our cyclical
process of; research, consultation
design and critique. As a
result we believe we have
conceptualised a sustainable
and modular design.
6.1 The
Results:
Within an E. coli chassis
both the perchlorate reductase and
chlorite dismutase were successfully expressed.
In addition three different chlorite dismutases
were shown to be active and
produce oxygen from their
substrate chlorite.
The following papers have been invaluable in finding the information behind our project:
- P.G Conrad (2014) Scratching the surface of martian habitability. Science (2014), 346,6215
- K.F. Bywaters, R. C. Quinn, Perchlorate reducing bacteria: Evaluating the potential for growth utilizing nutrient sources identified on mars. 47th Lunar and planetary science conference(2016)
- E. T. Urbansky. Perchlorate Chemistry: Implications for Analysis and Remediation. Bioremediation Journal (1998),2, 81-95.
- E. Stokstad. Perchlorate Impacts Thyroid at Low Doses. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2006/10/perchlorate-impacts-thyroid-low-doses