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Synthetic Biology for Space Exploration
Human space exploration faces different challenges. Topics like Bioregenerative Life Support Systems, In Situ Resource Utilization, and radiation protection, still require for more suitable solutions to be applied in long-term space exploration. Synthetic biology could be a powerful tool for enabling human exploration of space and planets. This paper explores key topics including resource utilization, life support systems, radiation protection, and human health, providing recommendations for short-, mid-, and long-term advancements in space exploration.
The ability of polypore fungi to build materials and to feed on wood chips, and lunar and Martian regolith simulant supplemented with a nutrient solution, has led to the proposal that habitats, rover shells, and furniture could be produced this way off planet. Synthetic biology also offers novel technologies for continual disease prevention such as in situ regulated nutrient and drug release systems (e.g., patches) or implants containing sense-and-respond living cells that act to mitigate loss of homeostasis through ‘prosthetic gene networks’ 128. In the short and middle term for topic (A), ‘In Situ Resource Utilization for Human Outposts on Mars and the Moon’, we recommend testing the impacts of the space radiation environment and altered gravity on chassis robustness using -omics methods such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics.
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