Application Regolith of Lemna Minor for In-Situ Phytoremediation of Perchlorate in Martian

Overview

The overall cost, complexity, and risk of a crewed deep space mission can be reduced and mission time extended by producing life support consumables utilizing local planetary resources. This approach is called ISRU (in- situ resource utilization), and one method that is shown effective for a Martian landing is growing crops using Martian “soil” (regolith) as a growth medium. However, a toxic chemical—calcium perchlorate exists in the regolith, rendering any crops grown in the regolith inedible. Perchlorate can be removed from the regolith by rinsing it with water. However, water is a critical resource in a deep space mission and must be reclaimed to make soil rinsing viable. The Air Force Research lab has shown in a 2002 study that numerous wetland plants, including Lemna Minor Duckweed, a plant attractive for a Mars mission due to its asexual reproduction and hardy nature, can remove perchlorate from contaminated materials through phytoremediation. However, the study only evaluated duckweed in tandem with other plants, leaving its ability to remove perchlorate uncertain. This study aims to determine if duckweed alone can lower perchlorate concentrations of water contaminated by Martian regolith from areas of varying perchlorate concentrations. Martian regolith was simulated by preparing regolith simulants with varying concentrations of calcium perchlorate before rinsing with water and placing the contaminated fluid in duckweed bioreactors. The concentration of perchlorate was measured over a week. A linear regression t-test was run with the condition β<0 to determine if there was a significant negative correlation between days in a.

Competition history

• JSHS 2023 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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