Bioregenerative Systems
Bioregenerative life support systems for long duration space flights - Hydrogenomonas biosynthesis and algae photosynthesis processes
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Bioregenerative life support systems for long duration space flights - Hydrogenomonas biosynthesis and algae photosynthesis processes
Algae and Hydrogenomonas bioregenerative life support systems for manned space flight
Chemosynthetic metabolism and physiological requirements for Hydrogenomonas culture growths
Carbon metabolism in Hydrogenomonas transition from autotrophism to heterotrophism
Enzyme systems and electron transport reactions in heterotrophically and autotrophically grown Hydrogenomonas eutropha cultures
Hydrogenomonas eutropha as potential regenerated food for long duration space missions, discussing weanling rat prolonged feeding studies
Human intolerance to bacteria as food, considering response to Hydrogenomonas eutropha and Aerobacter aerogenes
Improved apparatus permits the continuous culture of Hydrogenomonas eutropha. System incorporates three essential subsystems - /1/ environmentally isolated culture vessel, /2/ analytical system with appropriate sensors and readout devices, /3/ control system with feedback responses to each analytical measurement.
Extent of byproduct formation for growth of Hydrogenomonas eutropha under autotropic conditions
Energy yield measurements of catabolic and anabolic activity in autotrophically growing Hydrogenomonas eutropha
Human tolerance to Hydrogenomonas eutropha and Aerobacter aerogenes as food
The chemolithotroph, Hydrogenomonas eutropha, was considered as a life support, bioregenerative system. This project focuses on several metabolic functions that are related to the proposed nitrogen cycle between man and this microbe. Specifically this organism has the capability to utilize as the sole nitrogen source such urine components as urea and fifteen individual amino acids, but not nine other amino acids. The effectiveness of utilization was high for many amino acids. Several specific growth inhibitions were also observed. The enzyme that catalyzes the incorporation of ammonia in the medium into amino acids was identified as a NADP-specific, L-glutamate dehydrogenase. This enzyme has a constitutive nature. This organism can synthesize all of its amino acids from carbon dioxide and ammonia. Therefore with the background literature of multiple pathways of individual amino acid biosyntheses, our evidence to date is consistent with the Hydrogeneomonas group having the same pathway of valine-isoleucine formation as the classical E. coli.
The use of plants for bioregenerative life support for space missions was first studied by the US Air Force in the 1950s and 1960s. Extensive testing was also conducted from the 1960s through the 1980s by Russian researchers located at the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. NASA initiated bioregenerative research in the 1960s (e.g., Hydrogenomonas) but this research did not include testing with plants until about 1980, with the start of the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) Program. The NASA CELSS research was carried out at universities, private corporations, and NASA field centers, including Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The project at KSC began in 1985 and was called the CELSS Breadboard Project to indicate the capability for plugging in and testing various life support technologies; this name has since been dropped but bioregenerative testing at KSC has continued to the present under the NASA s Advanced Life Support (ALS) Program. A primary objective of the KSC testing was to conduct pre-integration tests with plants (crops) in a large, atmospherically closed test chamber called the Biomass Production Chamber (BPC). Test protocols for the BPC were based on observations and growing procedures developed by university investigators, as well as procedures developed in plant growth chamber studies at KSC. Growth chamber studies to support BPC testing focused on plant responses to different carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, different spectral qualities from various electric lamps, and nutrient film hydroponic culture techniques.
Genetic cultural stabilities of hydrogen bacteria for application to biological life support systems