Engineering Cyanobacteria for Chemical Bioproduction on Mars

Future missions to Mars will depend on the ability to sustain astronauts during space travel and on the surface. The cost of such missions increases with increasing payloads, making it prohibitive to send all the required materials from Earth. In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) enables the production of materials using resources found on Mars. Microorganisms can achieve this as they can be engineered for bioproduction. Previous work involved engineering sugar secretion in autotrophic cyanobacteria to support the growth of heterotrophic Bacillus subtilis, a robust and versatile bioproduction organism. However, the cyanobacterium used was unable to survive the environmental conditions of spaceflight, severely limiting its feasibility for missions to Mars. This proposal instead seeks to engineer drought and radiation resistant Nostoc cyanobacteria to secrete sugars to support B. subtilis growth and production of the Martian-relevant propellant 2,3-butanediol. The two-stage bioproduction system will be evaluated under cool, dark, and dry conditions to simulate space travel and then cultured using Mars Regolith Simulant to represent the Martian environment. This will assess the ability of engineered Nostoc to support the bioproduction of another organism to generate chemicals needed for living on the surface of Mars.

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