Transcript CLUSTER: Creative Lunar Utilization Systems to Transform

CLUSTER:
Creative Lunar Utilization Systems to
Transform Extraterrestrial Regolith
NASA AMES ACADEMY 2009
MOTIVATIONS:
• To aid the current plan to travel to the Moon and Mars
• ISRU will decrease several aspects of a mission:
• Mass
• Cost
• Risk
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
SCENARIO:
• On the Moon
• Fully Controlled Environment/Ventilation
• Using microbes to create a more hospitable growth
environment for plants
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
GOALS:
•
Acidity:
•
•
To determine whether acidophilic microbes will
free up the elements needed to grow plants in
lunar regolith simulant
Plants:
• To determine whether microbial co-cultures have
improved the habitability of the regolith simulant
environment
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
ACIDITY:
USING ACIDOPHILES TO RELEASE
ELEMENTS IN REGOLITH
MICROBE CULTURE:
• Co-culture of Cyanidium caldarium (red alga) and
Ferroplasma acidarmanus (archaean) with media
mixture of nutrients (thrive in low pH and 40°C)
• Control Group 1 (regolith slurry with HCL)
• Control Group 2 (regolith slurry with DDI water)
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
RESULTS:
pH tended towards
neutrality in all samples
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
RESULTS:
Conclusions
• Rising pH undermined effort to produce optimal growth
environment for microbes
• Results inconclusive
•Need to perform additional chemical tests for analysis
Future Studies
• Maintain more favorable environment by cycling acid
• Measure micronutrient concentration using advanced soil
fertility tests
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
PLANT GROWTH:
MODIFYING REGOLITH
FOR PLANT CULTIVATION
PAENIBACILLUS
POLYMYXA 9a
• A root-colonizing bacteria that increases plant strength, growth,
and yield (rhizobacteria)
• Similar microbe: Paenibacillus sp. IMBG 156 was shown to
release elements such as iron, silicon, and potassium when
inoculated in an anorthosite substrate (Kozyrovska et al. 2006)
• Inoculation was shown to make plants more resistant to drought
conditions or abiotic stress
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
NOSTOC
• Can survive in a desiccated state for months or even years
and recover after re-hydration
• Fixes atmospheric N2 in the presence of O2
ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA
• Ideal Test Specimen
• Rapid life cycle
• Small size
• Small genome fully characterized
• Easily modified
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP:
Seeds:
Y
Y
N
Soil:
N
Y
Y
Control
Growth media
Growth media
DI water
Seeds:
N
(0 microbes)
DI water
DI water
Growth media
Soil:
N
Paenibacillus
P. polymyxa
P. polymyxa
DI water
Control
DI water
polymyxa (1
DI water
P. polymyxa
P. polymyxa
(0 microbes)
DI water
Paenibacillus
P. polymyxa
P. polymyxa
DI water
polymyxa &
DI water
P. Polymyxa &
P. Polymyxa &
Nostoc
Nostoc
microbe)
Nostoc
(2 microbes)
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
OBSERVATIONS
• Two forms of growth not
•
expected:
• White, fibrous growth
on three samples
• White flecks on at least
2 samples
Changes in top layer of
regolith:
• Lighter, cake-like
texture
• Occured SOLELY in
experiments NOT
inoculated with
microbes
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
CAKE-LIKE LAYER
WHITE FLAKES
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
PHOSPHOLIPID FATTY ACID
• Key component the cell membrane
• Decompose quickly upon cell death
• Test evaluates concentration of the six structural groups of PLFA
in the surviving microbes
• Expected results:
•Co-cultures will demonstrate more microbial growth than single
cultures
•Contaminated samples will be identified
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
SOIL FERTILITY TESTING
• Uses a commercially available kit: Forestry Suppliers’ Soil
Analysis FIELD Kit
• Detects basic nutrients: Nitrogen, Potassium, and
Phosphorus levels in soil
• Expected results: Soil samples that have had microbes
growing will have higher concentrations on these
necessary nutrients
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NASA AMES ACADEMY
EVIDENCE OF GROWTH
• Trial to determine optimal slurry composition
• Added microbes and incubated, covered, for 3 weeks
REGOLITH
MICROGRAPH OF TRIAL SLURRY
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NOSTOC
FLUORESCENT MICROGRAPH OF
TRIAL SLURRY
NASA AMES ACADEMY
DISCUSSION:
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
FUTURE STUDY
• Perform study to determine optimal time between inoculating
and planting seeds (abandoned due to time constraints)
• Perform the experiments using different co-cultures
• Conduct tests to determine a more optimal slurry mixture/slurry
creation technique
• Perform the experiments again using a food producing plant
such as wheat
18 SEPTEMBER 2009
NASA AMES ACADEMY
THANK YOU:
Jon Rask
Yuri Griko
Matt Reyes
Lee Bebout
Brad Bailey
Anita Mantri
Brad Bebout
Pete Worden
Chris McKay
Erin Tranfield
Erich Fleming
Kristina Gibbs
Orlando Santos
Eduardo Almeida
Lockheed Martin
Lunar Science Institute
California Space Authority
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
California Space Grant
Alabama Space Grant
New York Space Grant
Florida Space Grant
Kentucky Space Grant
Massachusetts Space Grant
Hawaii Space Grant
Texas Space Grant
Michigan Space Grant
JAXA
QUESTIONS?