Recycling nutrients from organic waste for growing higher plants in the Micro Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA) loop during long-term space missions

Space food production on microbiological safety: Key considerations for the design of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan

Although diet in space has relied on the sterilized products transported from earth, on-site space food production (e.g., farming, nutritional bioregeneration, bioculture foods, cooking) have been suggested to establish sustainable food supply system. This book chapter describes the key consideration for the design of hazard analysis and critical control points plan optimized for food produced and prepared in outer space. Technical advances in the food production during spaceflight were summarized to categorize the types of on-site space food production. Overall results of previous research regarding microbial monitoring of contaminants onboard the habitat of astronauts (single bacterial isolation and community analysis) and the alteration of physiological characteristics of host-pathogen-food in microgravity were analyzed to suggest information required for hazard analysis. Pathogen control strategies which can be set as critical control points were also designed from raw materials to consumption followed by the waste recycling.

Beyond Earth: Harnessing Marine Resources for Sustainable Space Colonization

The quest for sustainable space exploration and colonization is a challenge in its infancy, which faces scarcity of resources and an inhospitable environment. In recent years, advancements in space biotechnology have emerged as potential solutions to the hurdles of prolonged space habitation. Taking cues from the oceans, this review focuses on the sundry types of marine organisms and marine-derived chemicals that have the potential of sustaining life beyond planet Earth. It addresses how marine life, including algae, invertebrates, and microorganisms, may be useful in bioregenerative life support systems, food production, pharmaceuticals, radiation shielding, energy sources, materials, and other applications in space habitats. With the considerable and still unexplored potential of Earth's oceans that can be employed in developing space colonization, we allow ourselves to dream of the future where people can expand to other planets, not only surviving but prospering. Implementing the blend of marine and space sciences is a giant leap toward fulfilling man's age-long desire of conquering and colonizing space, making it the final frontier.

Nitrogen accountancy in space agriculture

Food production and pharmaceutical synthesis are posited as essential biotechnologies for facilitating human exploration beyond Earth. These technologies not only offer critical green space and food agency to astronauts but also promise to minimize mass and volume requirements through scalable, modular agriculture within closed-loop systems, offering an advantage over traditional bring-along strategies. Despite these benefits, the prevalent model for evaluating such systems exhibits significant limitations. It lacks comprehensive inventory and mass balance analyses for crop cultivation and life support, and fails to consider the complexities introduced by cultivating multiple crop varieties, which is crucial for enhancing food diversity and nutritional value. Here we expand space agriculture modeling to account for nitrogen dependence across an array of crops and demonstrate our model with experimental fitting of parameters. By adding nitrogen limitations, an extended model can account for potential interruptions in feedstock supply. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was used to distill key consequential parameters that may be the focus of future experimental efforts.

Microbial products for space nutrition

Sustainably producing nutrients beyond Earth is one of the biggest technical challenges for future extended human space missions. Microorganisms such as microalgae and cyanobacteria can provide astronauts with nutrients, pharmaceuticals, pure oxygen, and bio-based polymers, making them an interesting resource for constructing a circular bioregenerative life support system in space.

Extraterrestrial agriculture: plant cultivation in space

[Formula: see text] Researchers are using various techniques and technologies to study how plants grow in extraterrestrial conditions with the hopes of sustaining longer missions for exploring deep space as well as being able to one day cultivate crops on other planets.

RNA-seq analysis in simulated microgravity unveils down-regulation of the beta-rhizobial siderophore phymabactin

Exploiting the symbiotic interaction between crops and nitrogen-fixing bacteria is a simple and ecological method to promote plant growth in prospective extraterrestrial human outposts. In this study, we performed an RNA-seq analysis to investigate the adaptation of the legume symbiont Paraburkholderia phymatum STM815T to simulated microgravity (s0-g) at the transcriptome level. The results revealed a drastic effect on gene expression, with roughly 23% of P. phymatum genes being differentially regulated in s0-g. Among those, 951 genes were upregulated and 858 downregulated in the cells grown in s0-g compared to terrestrial gravity (1 g). Several genes involved in posttranslational modification, protein turnover or chaperones encoding were upregulated in s0-g, while those involved in translation, ribosomal structure and biosynthesis, motility or inorganic ions transport were downregulated. Specifically, the whole phm gene cluster, previously bioinformatically predicted to be involved in the production of a hypothetical malleobactin-like siderophore, phymabactin, was 20-fold downregulated in microgravity. By constructing a mutant strain (ΔphmJK) we confirmed that the phm gene cluster codes for the only siderophore secreted by P. phymatum as assessed by the complete lack of iron chelating activity of the P. phymatum ΔphmJK mutant on chrome azurol S (CAS) agar plates. These results not only provide a deeper understanding of the physiology of symbiotic organisms exposed to space-like conditions, but also increase our knowledge of iron acquisition mechanisms in rhizobia.