Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

jfenciso · 2018-10-29 05:29:56

Share your insights about utilization and issues of algae for Martian colonization.

louis · 2018-10-29 09:05:36

Algae can be harmful on Earth. I think we need to be extremely careful about deploying it on Mars in the restricted habs. Presumably it could have a positive role to play in terraformation eventually.

jfenciso wrote:

Share your insights about utilization and issues of algae for Martian colonization.

louis · 2018-10-29 12:59:52

Of course chimps are partial to algae!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEk_sNYAyCo

Void · 2018-10-29 13:31:25

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina … upplement)
A cyanobacteria actually.

It has to be done with a certain PH that prohibits toxic microbes from growing also.

Done

SpaceNut · 2019-12-01 22:39:07

Turning light into oxygen is a hard trick and one we will need on mars...
Algae are indispensable because they generate about 50% of primary organic matter and account for about 50% of all oxygen on Earth. They produce oxygen through oxygenic photosynthesis -a biological process that "harvests" light and turns it into chemical energy.

RobertDyck · 2019-12-01 23:41:17

A couple points I've posted about.

1) Life Support. A spacecraft has very restrictive space. And life support has to be quick, you can't have a huge bioreactor recycle human waste (feces & urine) to produce food over a period of years. A spacecraft must have compact equipment that works over hours. I suggested harvesting in-vitro chloroplasts from leaves of plants, put them in transparent plastic bags of sterile water with CO2, shine sunlight. This will convert H2O + CO2 to produce O2 and sugar. Chloroplasts will polymerize that sugar to produce complex carbohydrates; which carbohydrate depends which plant you got the chloroplast from. The easiest plant to get chloroplasts is peas; that will produce pea starch. In-vitro chloroplasts won't live forever, but if we can get them to function for several months at a time, we can bring replacement bags frozen. Just thaw a batch of bags when replacements are necessary.

2) Terraforming. First warm Mars sufficiently to sublimate all dry ice. That will increase atmospheric pressure sufficiently that humans can walk outdoors without a pressure suit. It will still be a CO2 atmosphere, so settlers will need an oxygen mask, but that's a lot better than a spacesuit. Continue to warm Mars to melt water ice, so rain falls. Once that happens, we can grow peat bogs. I wrote that we can grind rock in vast fields, creating rock flour to a depth of 2 metres. Water pumps, each powered by a solar panel and battery, will circulate water through the rock flour. With a slow sand filter at the pump intake under the rock flour to ensure it doesn't get clogged. Peat will produce acid to break down rock, releasing nutrients and convert rock into clay. Grinding rock into rock flour will accelerate the process. Loess is natural rock flour. This will create a mixture of loess, clay, and peat. That's ideal soil. Breaking down rock with acid will release alkali, that will have to be filtered out with a lime water filter. Once the peat bog has sufficiently converted rock flour to clay and nutrients, then neutralize pH by adding lime back in.

This involves algae because peat is a symbiosis of sphagnum moss and cyanobacteria, very similar to algae, and in some cases algae itself. The cyanobacteria and/or algae takes nitrogen from atmosphere to produce nitrates in water. Sphagnum moss produces acid that breaks down minerals of rock to release potassium, phosphorus, and micro-nutrients. Cyanobacteria, algae and sphagnum moss fix CO2 from air to produce organic compounds. Together peat only needs air, rain, sunlight, and rock to produce soil. Grinding rock into rock flour just speeds the process, so it takes a decade or two instead of multiple millennia.

Calliban · 2019-12-02 06:09:42

Excellent post Robert.

I think algae will be an important food source on Mars. There are hundreds of thousands of different species, some edible, many are not. A quote from Wiki:

'Algae cost more per unit mass than other second-generation biofuel crops due to high capital and operating costs,[9] but are claimed to yield between 10 and 100 times more fuel per unit area.' Taken from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel

This suggests that microalgae will yield far more food per unit area than land crops grown in a greenhouse. Given how expensive it will be to build pressurised greenhouses on Mars, there will be strong economic drivers to harvest efficient food crops. Algae can also be pumped through transparent pipes, that do not require human presence for cultivation or harvesting.

If plants are grown under synthetic light, the efficiency of converting electrical energy into caloric energy is equal to:

Efficiency of LED in growth optimised frequency x photosynthetic efficiency of algae x proportion of harvested energy captured as calories.

Does anyone have any figures for these? Ultimately, if human beings can affordably produce food using an artificial thermonuclear energy source, then we could live almost anywhere with the necessary raw materials.

Second question: You talk about warming Mars to release enough CO2 for Humans to dispense with pressure suits. That would require about 200mbar of CO2 a column density of about 5 tonnes per square metre. It was my understanding that Mars was unlikely to have that much dry ice lurking beneath its regolith?

Last edited by Calliban (2019-12-02 06:18:30)

RobertDyck · 2019-12-02 11:41:16

(click image for Amazon web page for this book)

This book cites two science papers. One estimates Mars has enough dry ice to produce 200 mbar surface pressure, the other estimates 300 mbar. This book is copyright 1995, so before modern Mars probes. I've asked several scientists to update estimates of Mars CO2, but everyone I spoke with refused. So references cited in the book...

Rasool, S.I. and Le Sergeant, L., "Volatile Outgassing from Earth and Mars: Implications of the Viking Results," Nature, 266, 822-823, 1977.

Anders, E. and Owen, T., "Mars and Earth: Origin and Abundance of Volatiles," Science, 198, 453-465, 1977.

McElroy, M.B., Kong, T.Y. and Yung, Y.L, "Photochemistry and Evolution of Mars' Atmosphere: A Viking Perspective," J. Geophys. Res., 82, 4379-4388, 1977.

Clark, B.C. and Baird, A.K., "Volatiles in the Martian Regolith," Geophys. Res. Lett., 6, 811-814, 1979.

Pollack, J.B. and Blac, D.B., "Noble Gases in Planetary Atmospheres: Implications for the Origin and Evolution of Atmosheres," Icarus, 51, 169-198, 1979.

Car, M.H. "Mars: A Water-Rich Planet?" Icarus, 68, 187-216, 1986.

Dreibus, G. and Wänke, H., "Volatiles on Earth and Mars. A Comparison," Icarus, 71, 225-240, 1987.

Greeley, R., "Release of Juvenile Water on Mars: Estimated Amounts of Timing Associated with Volcanism," Science, 236, 1653-1654, 1987.

Terraformer · 2019-12-02 13:58:28

My understanding is that, as long as your chest is pressurised, you need ~70mb of pressure for the rest of your body.

RobertDyck · 2019-12-02 14:35:01

Lower pressure in your extremities results in blood pooling. My understanding is you need more than 70mb. Pressure for extremities can be a bit lower, but not that low. Dr Paul Webb studied this in 1967-1971, I'm saying this based on his work.

A US Air Force study found pilots can breathe lower pressure. A strong individual in his/her prime, with high altitude training, can breathe 2.5 psi (170 mbar) pure oxygen indefinitely and remain conscious. An individual can breathe 2.0 psi (138 mbar) pure oxygen and remain conscious up to 30 minutes before blacking out. That low it's just a question when you black out, not whether. At 3.0 psi (~200 mbar) pure oxygen anyone can breathe indefinitely; you don't need any high altitude training, and anyone can do it: young, old, senior citizens.

SpaceNut · 2019-12-02 20:26:24

So for the algea to survive what sort of a structure and lighting energy must we have to supply it with the needed food for it to survive so as to do its thing to help man survive....

SpaceNut · 2020-12-08 19:08:11

bump

List of posts by Calliban on algea

Physiology of Martian crops » 2020-12-05 19:05:53
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 71#p174571
Void's recent Apex Structures

Large scale colonization ship » 2020-11-01 17:45:34
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 49#p173549

How Much Water Does Mars Have? » 2020-10-09 08:07:46
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 72#p172972

Material Choices for Mars » 2020-09-30 15:30:17
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 70#p172770

Converting Slabs of ice into seas. Brine Resouces. » 2020-07-10 05:22:26
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 46#p169846
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 97#p169797
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 31#p169631

My Hacienda On Mars » 2020-07-04 18:11:07
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 57#p169657

Power to gas - the next step » 2019-12-09 18:21:03
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 73#p162973
kbd512 wrote: http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 71#p162971
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 66#p162966

Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization » 2019-12-02 07:09:42
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 47#p162747

Re-thinking Mars agriculture in light of Starship with higher paypload » 2019-09-03 12:46:08
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 23#p159623

SpaceNut · 2020-12-08 20:08:31

We have many more people that have posted as well but here are some more related topics.

Sewage treatment by Terraformer

Biodiesel from algae - Diesel trucks on Mars? by BWhite

Current experiments on algea, lichen etc.? - Anybody doing this stuff by Rxke

Calliban · 2020-12-11 23:25:24

Interesting paper.
http://powerorganics.com/RealTruthConfe … oalgae.pdf

There are apparently 30,000> species of microalgae. A largely unexplored part of the biosphere. There is also the possibility of genetic engineering as a source of new or modified species for human consumption. Ultimately, it should be possible to combine microalgae in ways that can simulate almost any food, much as quorn and other microfungi are now able to simulate meat.

Microalgae may be especially useful for Mars habitation if they can be grown in thin plastic panels on the surface that do not require routine human maintenance. If water containing algae and nutrients can be pumped through the panels and then back into a subsurface habitat through a pipe, then growing and harvesting the algae becomes easy. We could grow all of a base food supply using 3d printed plastic panels covered with transparent aerogel.

If food growth can be carried out in this way, then human beings can live almost exclusively underground. If abundant sunlight is not needed within habitats, then living space can be created using cut and fill techniques. There are many possible ways of doing this, especially in a dry environment.

1. Dig a hole some 5m deep; assemble cast basalt or concrete pillars within the hole; span the pillars with sheets or beams made from cast basalt; cover with excavated material. Quite cheap and low energy. Basalt can be cast into bulk shapes by pouring it into cast iron moulds lined with sand.

2. Loose rocks can be assembled into vault like structures and cemented together using a mixture of Martian soils and water. The whole structure can then be covered with overburden.

3. If enough water is available, then vault structures can be cast within a trench using a mixture of soil and water. Alternatively, rammed soil can be used to construct pillar supports, bricks and beams, which can then be used to construct vault structures than are then covered with overburden.

Last edited by Calliban (2020-12-11 23:42:52)

tahanson43206 · 2020-12-12 09:08:03

For Calliban re #14

Very Nice! Thanks!

SearchString:Algae pdf paper on 2001 Deep overview for wide audience - designed to irritate every category of reader

http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 75#p174775

(th)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-07-05 07:53:34

We had recent discussion on fuel and alcohol, however since Mars is cold we don't need to worry about dumping carbon in the atmosphere

News
Engineers create world’s first carbon-neutral cement out of algae. Cement production currently accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.
https://www.freethink.com/environment/c … ral-cement

a floating farm factory to cool down Venus?

'The method is not only carbon neutral, but could even prove carbon negative because the material is able to sequester carbon and store it within the concrete. '

quote from previous threads

SpaceNut wrote:

Void wrote:
Growing Spirulina:
http://www.spirulinaacademy.com/grow-yo … spirulina/
Food value of Spirulina:
http://www.livescience.com/48853-spirul … facts.html
As for Spirulina, I suggest that it could be in stationary, "Wall Gardens" where desired. It is possible that sunshine passing through such spirulina wall gardens would still be sufficient for the plants which would be in the cylinder wall gardens. Again the wall Spirulina tanks (Not on the cylinders) would also double as a cooling system. It is even possible that this system could be used to generate electricity, but that would be a further challenge.
High protein source, that being Spirulina.
http://www.antioxidants-for-health-and- … ulina.html
Spirulina would be in plastic pouches distributed as desired (The amount of shade you wanted) along the inside of the walls, you also have a method to extract heat (Cool the greenhouse as well), and at night from the tank(s) add heat to the greenhouse with water circulation. Perhaps there are better methods, but it is a possibility.
SpaceNut wrote:
Void I have no idea what Spirulina, so me being me I did look it up and while all the literature sound great its not something that is serve on the dinner table. A simple vegetable as blue green algae Spirulina grows so fast, it is harvested every 3 days. http://www.superfoodsforlife.com/page/103407
http://ag.arizona.edu/hydroponictomatoes/nutritio.htm
There are sixteen elements which are generally considered to be essential for good plant growth. The macro elements are those required in "high" concentrations: Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), Oxygen (O), Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca), Sulfur (S), and Magnesium (Mg). Carbon must be supplied to the plant as carbon dioxide gas (CO2). In a small operation or one with large amounts of fresh air movement, additional CO2 may not be required.
The micro elements are also essential for growth, but required in smaller concentrations. There is still some disagreement, but generally the micro elements are thought to be: Iron (Fe), Chlorine (Cl), Manganese (Mn), Boron (B), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), and Molybdenum (Mo). Certain plant species may need others for good growth: Silica (Si), Aluminum (Al), Cobalt (Co), Vanadium (V), and Selenium (Se).
Table 1. Fertilizer salts (adapted from Jensen and Malter, 1995)
Fertilizer Salts element supplied grams of fertilizer needed per 1000 liters of water to provide 1 mg/l (ppm) of the nutrient specified
Boric Acid [H3BO3] B 5.64
Calcium nitrate [Ca(NO3)2·4H2O] (15.5-0-0) N 6.45 Ca 4.70
Cupric chloride [CuCl2·2H2O] Cu 2.68
Copper sulfate [Cu(SO4)·5H2O] Cu 3.91
Chelated iron (9%) Fe 11.10
Ferrous sulfate [FeSO4] Fe 5.54
Magnesium sulfate [MgSO4·7H2O] (Epsom salts) Mg 10.75
Manganese chloride [MnCl2·4H2O] Mn 3.60
Manganese sulfate [MnSO4·4H2O] Mn 4.05
Molybdenum trioxide [MoO3] Mo 1.50
Monopotassium phosphate [KH2PO4] (0-22.5-28) K 3.53 P 4.45
Potassium chloride [KCl] (0-0-49.8) K 2.05
Potassium nitrate [KNO3] (13.75-0-36.9) N 7.30 K 2.70
Potassium sulfate [K2SO4] (0-0-43.3) K 2.50
Zinc sulfate [ZnSO4·7H2O] Zn 4.42

propellant thread

GW Johnson wrote:

As to algae, most biological materials are C-H-O-N compounds, with the other elements but tiny traces. The C and H are fuel materials, but the O content is not. The N content is merely an "inert", except not really, it will come out as oxides of nitrogen. The theoretical c* or Isp of such a fuel plus liquid oxygen is not going to be as high as with an all-fuel material.
It's an interesting idea, but I see a lot of downsides to making propulsive motors this way. Worth investigating in a lab, if anybody will finance it. But I'd bet the odds of success are quite low.
You might be better off mixing the dried algae with ammonium nitrate or ammonium perchlorate, and making a pressed solid propellant. But I'd hazard the guess it will be very low burn rate, and low in Isp, compared to other solids we know how to make. Few outfits make pressed propellants these days, other than flare manufacturers.
GW

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-07-05 07:55:21)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-08-25 07:07:47

Growing Food On Mars: Alfalfa Can Fertilize Soil And Cyanobacteria Can Desalinate Salt Water
https://astrobiology.com/2022/08/growin … water.html

Investigating the Growth of Algae Under Low Atmospheric Pressures for Potential Food and Oxygen Production on Mars
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8633435/

‘Microalgae could be cultivated on Mars’: Experts detail less obvious benefits of algae production
https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2 … production

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-10-12 09:08:15

Algae that killed off marine life in Hokkaido from Russia
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14467200

A red tide that devastated marine life off the northernmost main island of Hokkaido apparently was caused by algae drifting from Russia on an ocean current, Japanese researchers said.
The scourge triggered wholesale deaths of salmon and sea urchins, resulting in damages totaling 7.6 billion yen ($67 million) to the local fishing industry. The figure is expected to rise further in the days and weeks ahead.
Researchers with Hokkaido University suggested that phytoplankton, which has proliferated since mid-September, reached Hokkaido via the Kuril Current.

Algae as microscopic biorefineries

https://phys.org/news/2022-09-algae-mic … eries.html

Some raw materials are limited and not available and extractable everywhere in the world—as we are becoming acutely aware of right now by the example of fossil fuels and rising energy prices. Renewable raw material sources will therefore play an increasingly important role in the future as energy sources, but ideally also as suppliers of building blocks for more environmentally compatible chemicals and materials.

'Biologists unveil clues to evolutionary origins of brown-colored algae for health, biofuels research'
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 … 124436.htm

Poland blames toxic algae for Oder river fish kill
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-poland-bl … -oder.html

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-10-18 07:57:11

Onshore algae farms’ research might provide solutions for major problems facing the planet

https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/10/15 … he-planet/

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#1 2018-10-29 05:29:56

Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#2 2018-10-29 09:05:36

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#3 2018-10-29 12:59:52

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#4 2018-10-29 13:31:25

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#5 2019-12-01 22:39:07

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#6 2019-12-01 23:41:17

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#7 2019-12-02 06:09:42

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#8 2019-12-02 11:41:16

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#9 2019-12-02 13:58:28

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#10 2019-12-02 14:35:01

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#11 2019-12-02 20:26:24

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#12 2020-12-08 19:08:11

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#13 2020-12-08 20:08:31

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#14 2020-12-11 23:25:24

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#15 2020-12-12 09:08:03

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#16 2022-07-05 07:53:34

Re: Utilization and Issues of Algae for Martian Colonization

#17 2022-08-25 07:07:47

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