A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

Rusakov · 2017-12-13 15:24:49

NIAC: A Synthetic Biology Architecture to Detoxify and Enrich Mars Soil for Agriculture

Although the theoretical case for space biological engineering is convincing, since recent studies on the use of biology in space showed substantial payload minimization over abiotic approaches even before any engineering, the functioning of these biological technologies has yet to be proven in a space-like environment. We will study such functioning for a synthetic biology architecture that can detoxify the perchlorate in Mars soil and also enrich it with ammonia.
Our work will inform a prime deliverable of a comparative assessment with alternate chemical approaches postulated or scoped by NASA, and will clarify the feasibility of utilizing our proposed biotechnology to support manned Mars missions. The two system processes of perchlorate reduction and nitrogen fixation individually exist in biology and, when combined, will potentiate soil-based agriculture (by plants or microbes) on Mars. Our concept architecture is a single model organism that will eventually have both systems that are now separate in different strains of the same species.
The advantages of our proposed architecture over current approaches, such as washing out perchlorate to cleanse soil or using hydroponics to grow plants, include a low initialization mass of microbial cells, on- demand cell growth with in situ resources, and the elimination of toxic wastewater. To accomplish our proposed concept architecture, we will investigate two strains of a diverse clade of organisms, Pseudomonas, which includes relevant extremophiles.

As a person who's been infected with Pseudomonas before (swimmer's ear, yay!) it feels ironic that I support a project like this.

louis · 2017-12-13 18:48:12

It's good NASA are examining this but NASA spreads itself very thin. For early stage agriculture I think indoor hydroponics with artificial lighting makes sense, using imported nutrient feed. Gradually the Mars colony can build up its ability to produce the nutrient solution on Mars, with only limited imports. We have to remember that the great scarcity on Mars will be labour in the early stages. Even if you have a technical solution to creating a Mars soil, it's questionable how much labour you should devote to that when so much else needs to be done.

I would think rather than seeking to "clean" Mars regolith, it might be easier eventually to make soil from "scratch" in an automated facility using actual rock which is ground down to soil consistency.

Rusakov wrote:

NIAC: A Synthetic Biology Architecture to Detoxify and Enrich Mars Soil for Agriculture
Although the theoretical case for space biological engineering is convincing, since recent studies on the use of biology in space showed substantial payload minimization over abiotic approaches even before any engineering, the functioning of these biological technologies has yet to be proven in a space-like environment. We will study such functioning for a synthetic biology architecture that can detoxify the perchlorate in Mars soil and also enrich it with ammonia.
Our work will inform a prime deliverable of a comparative assessment with alternate chemical approaches postulated or scoped by NASA, and will clarify the feasibility of utilizing our proposed biotechnology to support manned Mars missions. The two system processes of perchlorate reduction and nitrogen fixation individually exist in biology and, when combined, will potentiate soil-based agriculture (by plants or microbes) on Mars. Our concept architecture is a single model organism that will eventually have both systems that are now separate in different strains of the same species.
The advantages of our proposed architecture over current approaches, such as washing out perchlorate to cleanse soil or using hydroponics to grow plants, include a low initialization mass of microbial cells, on- demand cell growth with in situ resources, and the elimination of toxic wastewater. To accomplish our proposed concept architecture, we will investigate two strains of a diverse clade of organisms, Pseudomonas, which includes relevant extremophiles.
As a person who's been infected with Pseudomonas before (swimmer's ear, yay!) it feels ironic that I support a project like this.

SpaceNut · 2017-12-13 20:20:32

Questions for the percholate are how deep do they go into the regolith soils, do they stay the same no matter where we test, are the neutralizing chemicals already there on mars to balance the soil back out, are the chemical percholates when water is just run through of benefit before processing by mixing the balancer soils.....

louis · 2017-12-14 05:20:12

All important points which underline our need to get there and start digging.

SpaceNut wrote:

Questions for the percholate are how deep do they go into the regolith soils, do they stay the same no matter where we test, are the neutralizing chemicals already there on mars to balance the soil back out, are the chemical percholates when water is just run through of benefit before processing by mixing the balancer soils.....

louis · 2017-12-14 06:07:44

In terms of soil manufacture, I think a Mars colony would be employing these sorts of processes...

http://www.agrophos.com/manufacturing-process.html

Maybe you would grind down some sandstone as a pure base for your soil.

elderflower · 2017-12-14 06:14:05

You don't ned to do grinding for the purpose of making soil. Just dig up some dune sand and wash it. Add composted organic waste and then you may have a tolerable soil. You might want to add some clay, but we know that occurs on Mars. As you say, Louis, we need to go and do some digging!

louis · 2017-12-14 12:06:49

Well there is the perchlorate issue...but also the radioactivity issue as well. I am assuming if you access some layer of sandstone, which is not exposed you are going to be have a less radioactive starter material. Radioactivity in earth soil following events like Chernobyl was a serious cause for concern...certainly something that needs to be assessed properly as we don't want to compromising health by ingesting radioactive foodstuffs.

elderflower wrote:

You don't ned to do grinding for the purpose of making soil. Just dig up some dune sand and wash it. Add composted organic waste and then you may have a tolerable soil. You might want to add some clay, but we know that occurs on Mars. As you say, Louis, we need to go and do some digging!

louis · 2017-12-14 12:14:46

Sorry - the post here was meant for another thread...

Last edited by louis (2017-12-14 12:35:25)

Rusakov · 2017-12-14 13:24:32

elderflower wrote:

You don't ned to do grinding for the purpose of making soil. Just dig up some dune sand and wash it. Add composted organic waste and then you may have a tolerable soil. You might want to add some clay, but we know that occurs on Mars. As you say, Louis, we need to go and do some digging!

I'll reiterate what the article said:

The advantages of our proposed architecture over current approaches, such as washing out perchlorate to cleanse soil or using hydroponics to grow plants, include a low initialization mass of microbial cells, on- demand cell growth with in situ resources, and the elimination of toxic wastewater.

In other words: less mass to launch, finer control over the processes and no perchlorate-tainted water at the end. The last one is particularly important as in a semi-closed loop system you do NOT want to waste water!*

*Yes yes, ice and water vapor are on Mars too. But you need a backup supply in case the area you're at doesn't have enough, or your collection systems break down.

louis · 2017-12-14 16:53:16

That begs a number of questions.

Re mass to Mars - with the Space X architecture they can deliver 300 tonnes to Mars for Mission One. That's a lot of tonnage, and certainly enough to cover the nutritional solution to go with hydroponic agriculture (plus enough to provide food supplies directly).

The issue really is when you would move from hydroponic to soil-based agriculture and then how you would do it. I tend to be cautious about moving to soil-based agriculture. The only major reason to do so on Mars is to cut down on energy usage by making use of natural insolation and natural nutrient processes in the soil. But my view is that energy will be super-abundant in the early colony, so that is not a problem, whereas the labour requirement to get transparent domes in place is excessive (domes will be much more complex constructions than indoor agriculture requires).

Labour will be in very short supply even when a move to soil-based agriculture becomes necessary. Why spend so much labour time on monitoring complex interactions which it will be difficult to control, when you could manufacture soil in a more methodical manner, using ground rock that didn't require cleaning, chemicals refined on Mars, waste matter from the population and existing indoor agriculture, and imported materials from Earth. The more automated we can make the soil production process, the better I think.

Ultimately this might come down to how easy it is to manufacture (in highly automated fashion) PV panels, associated equipment and hydroponic equipment on Mars compared with manufacturing transparent domes and soil management systems.

Rusakov wrote:

elderflower wrote:
You don't ned to do grinding for the purpose of making soil. Just dig up some dune sand and wash it. Add composted organic waste and then you may have a tolerable soil. You might want to add some clay, but we know that occurs on Mars. As you say, Louis, we need to go and do some digging!
I'll reiterate what the article said:
The advantages of our proposed architecture over current approaches, such as washing out perchlorate to cleanse soil or using hydroponics to grow plants, include a low initialization mass of microbial cells, on- demand cell growth with in situ resources, and the elimination of toxic wastewater.
In other words: less mass to launch, finer control over the processes and no perchlorate-tainted water at the end. The last one is particularly important as in a semi-closed loop system you do NOT want to waste water!*
*Yes yes, ice and water vapor are on Mars too. But you need a backup supply in case the area you're at doesn't have enough, or your collection systems break down.

SpaceNut · 2017-12-14 19:28:08

Perchlorate, an anion, consists of one chlorine atom bonded to four oxygen atoms (ClO4–) and is both naturally occurring and manmade.
Technical Fact Sheet–Perchlorate

Ammonium Perchlorate (NH4ClO4) , Sodium Perchlorate, Potassium Perchlorate (KClO4), Perchloric Acid

https://clu-in.org/download/contaminant … il-Bio.pdf

Perchlorate Biodegradation for WATER Treatment

The majority of the anthropogenic perchlorate contamination in groundwater stems from historical disposal practices by the aerospace and ordnance industries, the military, and chemical manufacturers. In some areas, the production and use of highway safety flares, fireworks, and explosives have also been linked to groundwater pollution. Perchlorate salts have been used in the U.S.
defense and space programs for several decades as primary oxidants in the solid propellants that power rocket motors, rocket boosters, and missiles.

Innovative Remedy for Perchlorate in Soils and Groundwater at Olin Morgan Hill Site

PERCHLORATE CONTAMINATION TREATMENT ALTERNATIVES California Environmental Protection Agency

Technical/Regulatory Guidance: Remediation Technologies for Perchlorate Contamination in Water and Soil

Terraformer · 2017-12-15 05:20:37

Why would mass be an issue? We're not going to be relying on agriculture for the first few missions, so by the time we are, we should be using in-situ resources.

Rusakov · 2017-12-15 07:07:35

Kind of off-topic, but since when was the administrator a spambot?

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#1 2017-12-13 15:24:49

A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#2 2017-12-13 18:48:12

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#3 2017-12-13 20:20:32

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#4 2017-12-14 05:20:12

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#5 2017-12-14 06:07:44

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#6 2017-12-14 06:14:05

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#7 2017-12-14 12:06:49

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#8 2017-12-14 12:14:46

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#9 2017-12-14 13:24:32

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#10 2017-12-14 16:53:16

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#11 2017-12-14 19:28:08

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#12 2017-12-15 05:20:37

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

#13 2017-12-15 07:07:35

Re: A NASA study on detoxifying/enriching Martian regolith

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