Microbes Might Make It Easier to Produce Rocket Fuel on Mars

New analysis particulars a organic answer for producing rocket gas on Mars, however important hurdles must be overcome to make this intriguing concept work.

With plans to go to Mars subsequent decade, NASA remains to be finding out the gas scenario; launching a rocket to the Red Planet shouldn’t be the problem—it’s getting a car off the floor for the return journey dwelling that’s posing a problem. Copious quantities of methane and liquid nitrogen will likely be wanted to supply the required propellant, however these key elements of rocket gas are as uncommon on Mars as gas refineries.

New research revealed in Nature Communications estimates a value of $8 billion to ship the required 30 tons of methane and liquid oxygen to Mars. And that’s only for a single launch with a 500-ton payload! With monetary help from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, the authors of the brand new paper have give you a really completely different answer, by which key elements wanted to supply the propellent will be sourced instantly on the Red Planet.

These elements embrace carbon dioxide, frozen water, and daylight. Cyanobacteria, also referred to as blue-green algae, and a bioengineered pressure of E. coli micro organism can be dropped at Mars from Earth, together with the supplies required to construct a big array of photobioreactors. Nick Kruyer, the primary creator of the brand new research and a researcher at Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and his colleagues have outlined a manufacturing technique by which the cyanobacteria, powered by daylight and carbon dioxide, produce sugars that the E. coli then converts right into a viable propellant.

Called 2,3-butanediol, it isn’t essentially the most energetic propellant ever invented, however within the relative low-gravity surroundings on Mars, this rocket gas will get the job executed, the researchers argue. As a compound, 2,3-butanediol is already well-known, because it’s used within the manufacturing of rubber, however scientists have by no means thought to make use of it as a propellant till now.

Other scientists had assumed that methane was the one answer, “as it is a high-energy fuel that can be made chemically from carbon dioxide, which is abundant on Mars,” Pamela Peralta-Yahya, a co-author of the research and an affiliate professor within the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Georgia Tech, defined to Gizmodo in an electronic mail. “A key insight of this paper is that a broader range of chemicals can be considered for use as propellant because Mars has one-third of the gravity of Earth—so you can use a less energy dense rocket propellant.”

The plastic supplies shipped to Mars can be assembled right into a photobioreactor array the scale of 4 soccer fields. Photosynthesis and carbon dioxide would allow progress of the cyanobacteria, whereas enzymes in a separate reactor would break down the microorganisms into sugar. As Kruyer identified in a press launch, “biology is especially good at converting CO2 into useful products,” making it a “good fit for creating rocket fuel.” At the E. coli stage, the separation of propellant from the fermentation broth would lead to 95% purity, based on the paper.

The bioproduction of Martian rocket propellant would require 32% much less energy than NASA’s proposed chemical answer—that’s, the plan to ship copious quantities of methane to Mars. It would produce 44 tons of extra clear oxygen, which might be put to good use by astronauts. What’s extra, the proposed chemical answer would generate carbon monoxide as a byproduct, “which would need to be scrubbed,” mentioned Peralta-Yahya. “Water electrolysis is envisioned, but that chemical…strategy is at a lower technology readiness level,” she added.

As for lowering the general value of the endeavor, that’s much less apparent, as this answer would require a 2.8-fold increased payload mass than the proposed chemical methods, the scientists say. That’s important. The researchers might want to cut back the load of the tools, corresponding to minimizing the scale of the photobioreactor.

That mentioned, a “key contribution” of the brand new paper is the “identification of attainable” optimization options to cut back the payload mass whereas additionally utilizing 59% much less energy than NASA’s methane plan, Peralta-Yahya defined. “Such optimizations include improving the cyanobacteria growth rate at cold temperatures, which would lead to smaller cyanobacteria farms,” she added.

Georgia Tech engineer and research co-author Matthew Realff mentioned the workforce might want to run experiments to indicate that cyanobacteria can really be grown on Mars. The workforce must “consider the difference in the solar spectrum on Mars both due to the distance from the Sun and lack of atmospheric filtering of the sunlight,” he defined in an electronic mail, whereas additionally holding in thoughts that “high ultraviolet levels could damage the cyanobacteria.”

The researchers may also must be cautious about contaminating Mars with our microbes. Securely containing the cyanobacteria and E. coli will likely be a needed step in guaranteeing that astrobiologists can hold searching for indicators of previous life on Mars with out interference from Earthly organisms.

NASA’s present planetary safety pointers explicitly prohibit the sending of microbes to the floor of one other planet, however as Peralta-Yahya defined, “biotechnology applications on Mars have the potential to provide distinct advantages over chemical processes.” To hold their answer secure, the workforce would develop and check various containment methods, corresponding to bodily obstacles, kill switches, and engineered microbes incapable of surviving exterior of the reactor.

The scientists have proposed an enchanting answer to a major problem. Yes, loads of work stays, but it surely’s begin. Mars could also be a barren desert, but it surely’s not fully with out sources. We simply have to search out methods of utilizing them to our greatest benefit.

More: Martian Colonists Could Use Their Own Blood to Produce Concrete, New Research Suggests.