Astronaut urine can be recycled into nutritional products and 3D printed plastic materials

HC Plastics News: According to the British "Daily Telegraph" website reported on the 22nd, American scientists have proved that they can use yeast strains to recycle important molecules in wastes such as gas exhaled by astronauts and discharged urine. Let it be "transformed" into nutrients, or 3D printing materials, and print out plastic products.

In general, astronauts are unlikely to carry many parts and items into space because the more they load, the higher the cost of fleeing the Earth's gravitational space. Now, with funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), researchers at Clemson University in the United States have found that different yeast strains can turn human waste into useful items.

For example, a yeast strain can produce omega-3 fatty acids that promote heart, eye and brain health after being fed with urea in untreated urine and carbon dioxide in the gas exhaled by astronauts. It is vital. Another yeast strain, after genetic editing, produces a polyester polymer. This polymer can be used in 3D printers to produce new plastic parts, so if a tool is lost in spacewalk, astronauts can use the molecules extracted from the waste to quickly print new tools.

Researcher Mark Bernell said: "If astronauts plan to conduct a multi-year journey of space exploration, then we need to find ways to find and recycle the items they carry. Our original intention is to develop a creature. The system, when needed, can astronauts wake them up from sleep."

Researchers hope that this project will eventually allow astronauts to live in space for a long time. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning to build bases on the moon and beyond; Space Exploration Technologies founder Elon Musk also announced the ambitious Martian colonization plan to build bases on Mars in the next 50 years. And once in a few months or even years in space, you need to recycle a lot of waste.

Although genetically edited yeast strains can only produce small amounts of polyester or nutrients, scientists hope to further increase yields. They believe that the latest technology can be found on the earth, such as in fish farming and human nutrition. The results of this research have been submitted to the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Editor in charge: Ye Dan

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