View of the red planet Mars (Representational Image) "Not only does synthetic biology promise to make the travel to extra-terrestrial locations more practical and bearable, it could also be transformative once explorers arrive at their destination," said Adam Arkin, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab) Physical Biosciences Division (PBD). Berkeley Lab researchers have used synthetic biology to produce a reliable microbial-based alternative to the world's most effective anti-malaria drug and to develop clean, green and sustainable alternatives to gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. During a manned space flight, the ability to augment fuel and other energy needs to provide small amounts of needed materials - plus renewable, nutritional and taste-engineered food and drugs-on-demand - can save costs and increase astronauts' health and welfare. In their study, the authors looked at four target areas: fuel generation, food production, biopolymer synthesis and pharmaceutical manufacture. They showed that for a 916-day manned mission to Mars, the use of microbial bio-manufacturing capabilities could reduce the mass of fuel manufacturing by 56 percent, the mass of food shipments by 38 percent, and the shipped mass to 3D-print a habitat for six by a whopping 85 percent. In addition, microbes could also completely … Continue reading →

New research has revealed that synthetic biology is a key to make manned space missions more practical. Lead author Adam Arkin from Berkeley Lab said that synthetic biology promises to make the travel to extraterrestrial locations more practical and bearable and could also be transformative once explorers arrive at their destination. Arkin added that during flight, the ability to augment fuel and other energy needs, to provide small amounts of needed materials, plus renewable, nutritional and taste-engineered food, and drugs-on-demand can save costs and increase astronauts' health and welfare, and at an extraterrestrial base, synthetic biology could make even more effective use of the catalytic activities of diverse organisms. The study reports on a techno-economic analysis, demonstrating the significant utility of deploying non-traditional biological techniques to harness available volatiles and waste resources on manned long-duration space missions. Most of the current technologies, which are now deployed or under development for providing this support, are abiotic, meaning non-biological and so, Arkin, Amor Menezes and their collaborators have shown that providing this support with technologies based on existing biological processes is a more than viable alternative. Menezes said that because synthetic biology allows them to engineer biological processes to their advantage, they … Continue reading →

The secret to pulling off long-term manned space missions is biomanufacturing at least, that's the argument presented by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) who have used synthetic biology to produce sustainable alternatives to fuel and anti-malaria drugs. Their theory rests on the idea that biological production processes and harnessing of materials at the mission destination could dramatically reduce mass (and hence cost) requirements. Even in the estimations of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, a manned mission to Mars will cost in the order of billions of dollars. Much of that cost will be down to the mass of food and fuel (the Berkeley researchers cite estimates that fuel will be two-thirds of the total ship mass for a return trip to Mars). But if astronauts can generate some portion of their fuel, food, medicines, and tools through synthetic biological processes, the ship mass could be reduced significantly. For a 916-day manned mission to Mars, for example, the researchers determined that such methods could shrink the mass of fuel manufacturing by 56 percent, the mass of food shipments by 38 percent, and the shipped mass to 3D print a habitat for six people by 85 percent. The researchers base … Continue reading →