Physiological and evolutionary responses of cyanobacteria in a sustainable Mars...
Physiological and evolutionary responses of cyanobacteria in a sustainable Mars exploration program
The world’s major space agencies share a goal of sending humans to Mars within the next few decades. A sustainable human presence there, akin to today’s presence in Antarctica, could generate paradigm-shifting knowledge at an unpr...
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31/01/2030
UBREMEN
2M€
Presupuesto del proyecto: 2M€
Líder del proyecto
UNIVERSITAET BREMEN
No se ha especificado una descripción o un objeto social para esta compañía.
TRL
4-5
Fecha límite participación
Sin fecha límite de participación.
Financiación
concedida
El organismo HORIZON EUROPE notifico la concesión del proyecto
el día 2025-02-01
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Información proyecto MarCyano
Duración del proyecto: 59 meses
Fecha Inicio: 2025-02-01
Fecha Fin: 2030-01-31
Líder del proyecto
UNIVERSITAET BREMEN
No se ha especificado una descripción o un objeto social para esta compañía.
TRL
4-5
Presupuesto del proyecto
2M€
Fecha límite de participación
Sin fecha límite de participación.
Descripción del proyecto
The world’s major space agencies share a goal of sending humans to Mars within the next few decades. A sustainable human presence there, akin to today’s presence in Antarctica, could generate paradigm-shifting knowledge at an unprecedented pace. One major challenge lies in providing the food, oxygen and other necessary consumables: these cannot be shipped from the Earth over the long term. They should instead be produced on site and for this, Nostocaceae cyanobacteria can be instrumental: fed with materials available in the Martian ground and atmosphere, they could provide feedstock for a range of bioprocesses which, in turn, could produce a wide range of consumables. However, fundamental knowledge is lacking to turn this concept into practical solutions: the physiology of cyanobacteria in the foreseen cultivation conditions is poorly understood. These conditions combine low total pressures, low partial pressures of dinitrogen, interactions with a basaltic substrate from which nutrients are leached, and high concentrations of chaotropic salts.In the proposed project, I will enable a deep understanding of cyanobacterial physiology in these conditions. For this I will employ a unique approach combining cultivation assays in unique hardware previously developed by my team, adaptive laboratory evolution, cutting-edge omics technologies, the development of a mathematical model which can predict the productivity and efficiency of cyanobacterium cultivation from Martian resources, and the construction of a testbed for the experimental validation of this model. I will use the generated knowledge and tools to design, characterize and demonstrate the viability of bioprocesses which dramatically improve the odds that Mars exploration is done in a sustainable way. Finally, I will adapt the concepts developed for bioproduction on Mars to open new avenues for sustainability on Earth, which I plan to follow up by applying for an ERC Proof of Concept Grant.