InSpace Bio Tech Project

 

Members - InSpace Bio Tech

Arielisson Nunes de Oliveira

Erick Syuffi Lagedo
Gabrielle Vasconcelos de Mendonça Penha

Leonardo Teixeira da Costa

Leticia de Souza Lopes

Mariana Milena Prado de Sá

NASA Space Apps Challenge

Challenge: Have seeds will travel! - October 2nd, 2021.

OVERVIEW

Pre-packaged foods are the way to keep astronauts' nutritional health stable and are considered promising in this regard. Even though, for long-term voyages, such as missions to Mars, the effectiveness of these foods is lost and becomes useless for the nutritional balance of the crew.

However, as much as there may be several options to meet the need for food exploration, many of them require a sudden advance in technology and complex and adaptable infrastructure. To meet the needs of the crew, the insertion of agricultural plants is seen as the most viable and, therefore, economical in some aspects. By inserting this type of food to astronauts, in addition to balancing their nutritional health, mental health is also sustained, as the beneficiaries need to take care of the plantation.

To be in line with the approximate time of 3 years of travel, the InSpace Bio Tech team planned it in three moments: At first, on the trip to the red planet, the crew will feed on fungi and seaweeds obtained on the ship, taking some seeds on board; On the Martian surface, the crew must set up an underground greenhouse (in existing structures such as caves and lava tubes), to control the temperature and design a plant cultivation system, which contains seeds transported in the ship, the Hydroponics, using the water available on the planet itself and being radiated by white fluorescent light; A third step, when well-developed lost plants (food) and the return to Earth is being recommended, such as leaves, fruits, and seeds, they must be collected to go through the freeze-drying process, which will only be possible thanks to the fungi sustained during the one-way trip on the ship. To succeed in this process, it is theoretically necessary to leave these fungi in food exposed to the atmosphere of Mars, which wants to automatically freeze-dry. After all that, astronauts must return to Earth, keeping their nutrition stable from food produced on Mars.

PURPOSES

Keep the crew's mental and nutritional health stabilized;

Sustain fungi and seaweeds to feed the crew during the trip to the red planet;

Set up an underground greenhouse on Mars, capable of housing a cultivation system without the use of soil, hydroponics;

Dry food exposed to the Martian atmosphere, through the freeze-drying process, from the fungi, so that it is possible to store a stock of food for the trip back to Earth.

SPECIFICATIONS

The astronauts, during the trip to the red planet, will have to content themselves as the basis of their nutritional needs, the ingestion of fungi (mushrooms) and seaweeds, which produce the oil, which contains large amounts of calories, enough for the crew. The mushrooms would be treated in a dimly lit incubator, hydrated by misting, in which unused water would be filtered and reused to repeat the process, and suspended in oat flour, which is more nutritious than wheat flour. The oil extracted from the seaweeds, in addition to supplying the crew's caloric content, will be used to dilute some vitamins that are fat-soluble; Fungi will be useful to adhere to the consumption of proteins and carbohydrates.

On board the crew, seeds will be transported to be cultivated on Mars, still with the aim of establishing the nutrition of the astronauts and, as a bonus, ensuring the mental health of everyone, bringing spices (which will make the team feel at home), chard and tea plants (which will serve as tranquilizers). For nutrition, products such as strawberries, peas, and vegetables with dark green leaves will be taken, such as kale, arugula, and lettuce. A very important point for the crew is the sugarcane, which can be planted in the soil of Mars with some sustenance and will serve as great carbohydrate sustenance for the astronauts and also its by-products (leaves and molasses) will be used for feed the mushrooms, which will be in boxes while on Mars.

Nevertheless, the cultivation will take place from a planting system called hydroponics (except for sugarcane). Hydroponics is a cultivation technique, in which plants grow in water, replacing the use of the soil, being fed by the nutrient solution, which will be provided by water. The exploration of the Martian soil can be advantageous for this system, being useful for agricultural production, providing (diluting) the minerals needed to sustain the plantation, as well as a series of other micronutrients necessary for human existence (Calcium, Magnesium, Iodine, Iron, Sodium, and Potassium).

To avoid certain meteorite falls, radiation, and sandstorms, cultivation in existing underground structures (caves or lava tubes) would be feasible. Underground, an assembly of a greenhouse for temperature control, since on the planet there is no geothermal heat to keep the environment preserved, as well as there is not enough atmospheric heat to be absorbed by rocks, that is, like caves and tubes. lava has a low amount of heat. The greenhouse, which would contain the

sugarcane plantations, the hydroponic system, water tanks containing seaweeds and mushrooms in boxes with sugarcane by-products, will have its walls made of sugarcane, originating from cellulose extracted from sugarcane. This product becomes essential for astronauts, as it not only serves for consumption (food) but also serves to manufacture and extend a greenhouse inside the underground structure.

Sugarcane will be the first product to be treated, as everything else will depend on the Nanocellulose extracted from it. For this, an initial greenhouse would have to be brought from Earth along with a ship, so that the plant could be cultivated. The process of obtaining Nanocellulose takes place in sugarcane bagasse, using mechanical methods with possibilities of chemical or enzymatic pre-treatments. After making a considerable amount of Nanocellulose fibers to extend the greenhouse, the hydroponics system can already be installed, the water tanks with seaweeds inside and the boxes with the mushrooms being fed with sugarcane bagasse can also be installed and be allocated within the greenhouse.

A very important element for photosynthesis and for heating inside the greenhouse will be light. For this, the necessary lights will be of two types: Blue light, with a wavelength between 400 and 500 nm, which is essential for root growth and intense photosynthesis; and red light, with a wavelength between 640 and 720 nm, which stimulates stem growth, flowering, and chlorophyll production.

It has to be thought that during this journey on the Martian surface, some vegetables or fruits can spoil, as it normally occurs in plantations here on Earth. With that in mind, there is a very promising bioconversion method to take advantage of what is supposedly “lost”. According to research carried out by researchers at the University of Mogi das Cruzes (São Paulo - Brazil), the transformation of agricultural residues (apples that would go to the trash and loquats, for example) into nutritional supplements can be a factor in fighting hunger of the crew.

For this conversion to occur, any type of agricultural residue will do, but for large quantities, we will use as an example an experiment carried out by researcher Elisa Espósito, at the University of Mogi das Cruzes. As the Loquat crop waste in this region is more than 30%, she opted for these residues for large-scale conversion.

The residual Loquats were sterilized at 121º C for 15 minutes and then fermented by the following microorganisms to increase the protein content of the residues: the yeast Candida ulitis and the fungus Pleurotus ostreatus. After fermentation, the researcher and her team analyzed the levels of protein, sugars, and the toxicity of fermented foods. As a result, it was concluded that although Loquats have a low concentration of protein and mineral salts and a high sugar content (fructose and sucrose), fermentation reversed these properties, reducing the amounts of sugars and contributing to the formation of proteins and salts minerals, producing a kind of flour.

For this reason, the treatment of fungi is necessary both for their consumption and for the transformation of agricultural residues into nutritional supplements (Bioconversion), which will meet the nutritional needs of the entire population.

Time passed and the journey on Mars began to close. Time to go home. In order for the crew to return to Earth while still maintaining their nutritional needs, food grown in an underground surface must go through the freeze-drying process. For this, the Martian atmosphere will be used, as the atmospheric pressure is very low and the air is very dry and cold, providing the essential conditions for the continuation of Lyophilization. To complete the process, the fungi that were still being maintained in the greenhouse will be used, in which they will come into contact with the plant and Lyophilization will take place automatically.

Therefore, with the freeze-dried food, the collected seaweeds, and the well-treated fungi, the return to Earth can be accomplished with all food grown on Mars. Bioconversion is still necessary for eventual agricultural residues, so no food is wasted and it will continue to support the entire crew.