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Different research is being done to find solutions to many problems for the manned mission to Mars. One of these reaches Mars and arranges fuel to return from there. The distance to Mars is so great that it will take a lot of fuel to reach there. For this, to return to Mars from there, more fuel would be needed to carry fuel from Earth itself, because this would greatly increase the weight of the fuel-carrying vehicle. In such a situation, options are being explored to manufacture fuel on Mars itself. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed the concept of making rocket fuel on Mars itself, so that in the future, Mars travelers can be brought back from Mars to Earth.
The Georgia Tech team says that in order to develop effective technologies for fuel production, food and chemicals through BioIsru, it is necessary to acknowledge the difference between the two planets. That’s why researchers are using the applications of biotechnology for Mars. With this the dream of human presence outside the earth will be realized.
In this process of bioproduction, three sources of Mars can be used – carbon dioxide, sunlight and frozen water. For this, two types of micro-organisms will also have to be sent to Mars. In this, there will be cyanobacteria with algae whose job will be to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere of Mars and use sunlight to make sugar. In the form of another micro-organism, Engineers E. coli will also need to be sent from Earth to Mars. Which will work to convert this sugar into the rocket propellant needed for Mars. Currently, this propellant for Mars, called 2,3 butanediol, is used to make polymers in rubber production.
This study has been published in Nature Communications. Currently, there are plans to use methane and liquid oxygen as fuel for rocket engines sent to Mars, both of which do not exist on Mars, which means they will have to be taken from Earth. This transport itself will become very expensive, in which the cost of carrying 30 tons of methane and liquid oxygen will be about $ 8 billion. For this, NASA has proposed to convert carbon dioxide into liquid oxygen on Mars. Even then, methane will still have to be carried to Mars. As an alternative, the researchers have proposed biotechnology-based in situ resource utilization to make the fuel from liquid oxygen and carbon dioxide itself. With this technology, 44 tonnes of extra clean oxygen will be produced which can be used for other purposes as well.
At present, carbon dioxide is the only available source on Mars. Researchers say that biology can convert CO2 into useful rocket fuel products. The whole process is explained in this paper. In which some plastic materials will be taken to Mars, which will be assembled there as a photo bioreactor. Which will be the size of four football fields. Cyanobacteria will be grown there through photosynthesis. A second reactor would convert enzymes cyanobacteria into sugars that would be fed to E. coli that would make rocket propellants. The E coli of this propellant will be separated from fermentation.
The researchers found that the buoy ISRO’s device uses 32 percent less power, but is three times heavier, than the method used to produce oxygen using chemical catalysts to transport methane from Earth to Mars. Since the gravity of Mars is only one third that of Earth, researchers have a chance to be more creative. There will be less energy to fly there, so many chemical options can be considered. Researchers say they have also begun to consider alternatives that would not work on Earth, but are possible for low-gravity and oxygen-free Mars.
Researchers say 23 butanediol is not a new production, but it has never been considered for use as a fuel before. Initial analysis has been considered a very strong candidate for Mars. Now the researchers will try to make the processes developed by them more effective. They will try to reduce the weight of the BioIsru process and make it lighter than the proposed chemical process. Apart from this, due to the increase in the speed of producing cyanobacteria on Mars, the size of the photo bioreactor can also be reduced significantly. This will also reduce the burden of carrying equipment from Earth to Mars. Apart from this, the researchers also want to show that cyanobacteria can be grown in the conditions of Mars.
