fairfolio
Saved Projects

Sustaining Spacecraft: Application of Novel Photobioreactor System in Aerospace Gaseous Exchange

CSEF · 2023 Microbiology (General) Second Award

Lin Mark · 11

Overview

Algae has shown promise in many industries; its growth efficiency and health benefits demonstrate the capacity to enhance human sustainability. Recent research by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) has shown potential for the aerospace implementation of photobioreactors (PBRs), which use algae to convert carbon dioxide and light into oxygen and harvestable biomass. While prototypes have been developed, experimental difficulties indicate the need for more efficient systems. The project’s hypothesis is that immobilized Chlorella vulgaris will grow comparably to liquid algae when implemented in a PBR. A proposed PBR is developed and used to test the growth of algae in both solid and liquid media over a two-week experimental period. Data on oxygen, carbon dioxide, and temperature is collected and analyzed, and spectrophotometry is utilized to determine algae population density. Results show that both the solid- and liquid-based PBRs displayed growth over the 14-day period. Throughout the experimental timeframe, algae in solid media showed higher carbon dioxide consumption compared to algae in liquid media. In addition, a higher population density (relative to initial population density) is noted compared to that in the liquid media, as measured by spectrophotometry. Further research could facilitate the development of space-efficient algae “cells” in functional spacecraft, with the advantage of reduced mechanical complexity. Experimental results also show promise in other industrial applications, where algae plates could effectively remove carbon dioxide emissions from factories. As human exploration and settlement activity increase, the merits of this technology may prove vital for long-term sustainability.

Source coverage

This record comes from a published award list, not a complete project archive. Its abstract comes from CSEF's public project showcase as archived by the Internet Archive before judging (https://web.archive.org/web/20230401224130/https://ca-csef.zfairs.com/showcase/ShowcaseInfo?f=838e60b7-ea75-46e8-865c-fde4864244b3); the version presented may differ.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2023 Microbiology (General) · Entry S1503

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google