(436b) A Systems Engineering Approach to Biomanufacturing for Long-Duration Missions on Mars

The Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES) addresses the grand challenges of space systems biology by leveraging partnerships between industry, academia, and NASA to support biomanufacturing for deep space exploration. The scope of the center is to advance the practicality of an integrated, multi-function, multi-organism biomanufacturing system on a Mars mission and showcase a semi-autonomous biomanufacturing of materials, pharmaceuticals, and food under the specifications required for a human exploration mission on Mars [1]. Our pipeline begins with production of biological feedstocks through microbial processing of in situ resources to fix carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere, decontaminate and enrich regolith, and to transform human/mission wastes to media and feedstocks for utilization by downstream processes. Feedstocks are then used to produce biopolymers and chemicals from media and feedstocks, to recycle products at end-of-life, and to use biopolymers suitable for 3D printing to grow the manufacturing facility infrastructure and provide tools and building materials on demand [2]. Specialized plant and microbial engineering methods are utilized to produce functional food and pharmaceuticals for astronauts along with the recycling of plant wastes. Systems engineering methods are employed to tightly integrate and automate our pipeline and to satisfactorily achieve performance per mission specifications.

In this talk, we will demonstrate the implications of our integrated systems approach in building a process simulation framework as a central feature in the biomanufacturing-driven Reference Mission Architecture. The units are independently studied through experiments and first principles-based models and are connected through input/output relations. More specifically, the first unit consists of a bioreactor for carbon fixation through microbial electrosynthesis (MES) in which acetate is a metabolic product [3]. The latter is fed into a biological nitrogen fixation reactor as well as into a biopolymer (PHB) production reactor, serving as the main carbon source in both cases. Downstream, the fixed nitrogen is utilized for crop cultivation and the produced PHB for 3D printing of necessary tools. The integration aspects as well as the uncertainty regarding system failures and smooth operation are considered within our framework. The production capability of this system is assessed and is driven by the needs of the crew members for survival.

Lastly, since most processes operate in a batch mode, a thorough discussion regarding an optimized scheduling plan under uncertainty is provided. This is a crucial part of the biomanufacturing system design as the objective of maintaining a high quality of life for crew members is of primary importance, given that resources are limited and safety of the operation is critical.

References

[1] A. A. Menezes, M. G. Montague, J. Cumbers, J. A. Hogan, and A. P. Arkin, “Grand challenges in space synthetic biology,” J. R. Soc. Interface, vol. 12, no. 113, p. 20150803, 2015.

[2] A. A. Menezes, J. Cumbers, J. A. Hogan, and A. P. Arkin, “Towards synthetic biological approaches to resource utilization on space missions,” J. R. Soc. Interface, vol. 12, no. 102, p. 20140715, 2015.

[3] M. Kazemi, D. Biria, and H. Rismani-Yazdi, “Modelling bio-electrosynthesis in a reverse microbial fuel cell to produce acetate from CO2 and H2O,” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., vol. 17, no. 19, pp. 12561–12574, 2015.