Feasibility of Cultivating Arthrospira Platensis as a Food Source Using Mars Regolith Simulant and Urine Simulant for Mars Exploration and Colonization

Overview

Arthrospira platensis, best known as Spirulina, is a freshwater extremophile cyanobacterium that has a particularly desirable quality for Mars exploration and colonization, in that it could be the only food someone could eat and would provide suitable nutritional sustenance. Urine contains elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus which are essential to Spirulina growth, however urine lacks significant amounts of trace elements which are also needed. Many of those trace elements can be found in Martian regolith. A rudimentary photobioreactor was assembled, providing ample heat, light, and aeration/agitation suitable to Spirulina cultivation. A positive control culture medium was purchased along with Spirulina inoculum. JSC-Mars-1A Martian regolith simulant was purchased, and to extract any water soluble nutrients that might be beneficial to Spirulina growth, 166 grams of simulant was added to 3.784 liters of distilled water, stirred for 3 days, then filtered, generating MDS (Mars Dirt Solution). A sample of MDS was elementally analysed and contained detectable amounts of Calcium, Iron, and Zinc. Urine simulant was prepared, but due to the high salt content, was diluted 3:1 with distilled water. Both the 3:1 urine simulant and the MDS were buffered to a pH of 9.5, the same pH as the control medium. Flasks of urine, MDS, control, and Urine/MDS medium were inoculated with Spirulina and placed in the photobioreactor. Growth was measured every 5 days in a hemocytometer chip and dry weight taken at the end. All alternative mediums grew comparable to the control medium, showing that materials found on Mars settlements could supply astronauts with a possible food source.

Competition history

• AJAS 2018 Category not listed

Related projects

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

Browse more like this

• AJAS None projects
• Every AJAS 2018 project