Synthetic life could aid space exploration

September 23, 2010
By Clara Moskowitz

When packing for a manned mission to Mars or the Moon, the best thing to bring may not be food or fuel, but specially designed organisms that can create those things for you.

Scientists are researching the possibility of engineering synthetic organisms that could use the resources available in the solar system to create the supplies astronauts would need to survive on another planet.

"Personally I'm interested in space settlement," said John Cumbers, a graduate student at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., who is researching synthetic microbes. "I think we have two choices. We can either go into space and be living inside a tin can, or we can be going into space and recreating in space some of the beauty of nature we have here on Earth."

Cumbers said he wasn't advocating terraforming, or completely restructuring the surface of a planet to mimic Earth, but rather using bioengineered organisms in a planned and contained way to make life easier in an alien environment.

"I think there's a lot that we can do that’s productive with biology without having to release organisms in an unplanned fashion," Cumbers told Astrobiology Magazine.

Dangerous microbes?

Yet even with careful planning, this concept could also bring risks, as some experts warn against creating dangerous "Frankenlife" that could become an invasive species with unintended consequences for either humans or the environment, or could possibly harm native alien life.

Orbiting bioreactors around Mars could use resources from the Red Planet to create food or fuel. Some scientists propose bioengineering synthetic organisms to aid in these reactions. Credit: Eric Belita / John Cumbers

However, other scientists advise reining in fears.

"I don't think this would be particularly hazardous," said Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at Ames who is not involved in Cumbers' project. "The sort of organisms that would be good at doing mineral extraction -- acidophiles for example -- are not the type of organisms that cause disease."

And, he said, these synthetic organisms would present no more risk of contaminating searches for alien life than would the normal microbes that would be carried there by humans and spacecraft.

"In any case we will have to learn how to tell the difference between contamination from Earth and alien life," McKay said.

Making life easier

To design an organism for use on another planet, researchers want to mix and match desired qualities from multiple species. For example, they might start with a species that can do something useful, like process materials into biofuels or food. But this species might not be adapted for life in a harsh alien environment like the surface of Mars, where there is no atmosphere to block harmful ultraviolet radiation, and temperatures can reach frigid depths. To fix that issue, researchers might want to give that organism genes from extremophile life - species on Earth that are adapted to extreme environments and are well-suited to tolerate cold and resist UV radiation.

Cumbers described an experiment where researchers genetically engineered an E. coli bacterium to survive at lower temperatures than it normally does. They accomplished this by transferring the genes for a chaperone (a protein that helps other proteins to fold correctly) from a cold-tolerant organism found in sea ice into an E. coli cell.

One goal that could prove useful for space exploration is creating a synthetic version of spirulina, a dietary supplement made from microscopic algae produced by cyanobacteria. Spirulina is a complete protein, meaning it contains all of the essential amino acids humans need in their diet. That makes it an ideal food to bring on a space mission.

But spirulina generally grows in open ponds in the warm waters of Hawaii - so adapting it to life on, say, the Moon, is an engineering challenge.

Packing for space

One reason bioengineered organisms are so appealing for space travel is because they could open up a lot of room in astronauts' suitcases. The more supplies space travelers can produce once they arrive at their destination, rather than pack on the spacecraft that takes them there, the better.

"For manned missions to the Moon or Mars we're going to have to take nearly everything with us, at least at the beginning," Cumbers said. "If we have this new technology where we can take the complete genome of an organism and send it into space, and can have that single cell replicate from the resources it finds around it, rather than resources we've taken with us, then we've started to tackle the problem."

Cumbers presented his work with Lynn Rothschild, his advisor at Ames, at the Astrobiology Science Conference in League City, Texas, in April.

Related Stories

One of the main focuses in the search for living organisms on other planets and the possibilities for transfer of life between planets currently centres on bacteria, due to the organisms simplicity and the possibility of ...

In Star Wars and Star Trek movies, people travel between planets and galaxies with ease. But our future in space is far from assured. Issues of hyperdrive and wormholes aside, it doesn't seem possible that the human body ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny microscopic creatures commonly known as water bears (also called Tardigrades), along with a few other life forms, will be sent to the Martian moon Phobos to test whether organisms can survive for long ...

With every spacecraft that leaves Earth, millions of microbes hitch a ride into space. As astrobiologists search for life in other worlds, preventing forward and back contamination remains a key priority.

(AP) -- For decades, scientists have scanned the heavens in search of extraterrestrial life. Perhaps they should have looked closer to home. Variant life forms - most likely tiny microbes - could still be hanging around ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria collected from rocks taken from the cliffs at the tiny English fishing village of Beer in Devon, have survived on the outside surface of the International Space Station for 553 days. The bacteria, ...

Recommended for you

What if I told you that recent experiments have revealed a revolutionary new method of propulsion that threatens to overthrow the laws of physics as we know them? That its inventor claims it could allow us to travel to the ...

The coalescence of two black holes—a very violent and exotic event—is one of the most sought-after observations of modern astronomy. But, as these mergers emit no light of any kind, finding such elusive events has been ...

The recent discovery of an Earth twin has boosted chances there is intelligent life on other planets. But while Pope Francis's telescope scans the starlit skies, the Vatican is sceptical of ever meeting Mr. Spock.

A dying star's final moments are captured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The death throes of this star may only last mere moments on a cosmological timescale, but this star's demise is still quite ...

Use the technology of the Flying Saucer, discovered in Canada, patented, suggested to Nasa and misused by incompetent Rocket Propulsion Engineers in Cleveland, Ohio (They caused the big blackout of 2003 and then advised Nasa that it was unsuitable for Space Travel!).A real space ship (even the Shuttle) using the techology would have landed on the Moon in just a couple of hours. Why grow your food on the Moon when you can get it wholesale from Florida?

While I am personally very wary of transgenics, the fact is this technology is already being used.

Just two days ago I saw on the news a segment about a new transgenic Salmon that has been produced using a gene from a sea eel which causes it to produce more growth hormone, and therefore grow much larger and faster than natural salmon. The company has, however, made the FALSE claim that the meat is the same as normal salmon. Anyone who knows about DNA knows that every cell of the creature's body has in fact been altered, so it can't be the same.

At any rate, transgenic foods appear to be right around the corner from being on the open market...

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.