Results for “Biocomposites”

NASA NTRS2015

Biomaterials Out of Thin Air: in Situ, On-Demand Printing of Advanced Biocomposites

Upmass is the single most significant limitation of our current space mission capability. Although biomaterials and biocomposites have mass, strength, flexibility, and self-healing properties that could significantly reduce upmass, their use is limited by the following drawbacks: Expensive, specific production. Many biomaterials can only be produced as part of significant support ecosystem; Inaccessible functional customization. The grain of wood, the porosity of bone, and so on are an integral part of the materials' desired mechanical properties, but are not deterministic when the material is naturally grown; Limited compositions. Most biomaterials (unlike metal, plastic, etc.) cannot be easily combined or modified to produce new materials. This project builds on recent advances in: Synthetic biology. Libraries of standardized genetic parts which can be used for controlled cellular material production, delivery, and binding; 3D printing. Commercial off-the-shelf components which can be used to make of a pico- to nanoliter cell deposition system; Tissue engineering. Proven cell-compatible support hydrogels and scaffolds can be modified to bind the deposited biomaterials of interest. Objectives: Feasibility and benefit analysis. Two mission contexts span the concept's scope (see below); Proof-of-concept demonstration. A simple grid of two proteins, fluorescent for easy detection, to validate the core technology concept; Proposed implementations for follow-on work. Avenues for future work on each core component (host cell, production control, material delivery, material binding, etc.); Complementary studies exploration. A survey of other emerging areas (in situ resource utilization, protein engineering, etc.) with the potential to multiply our technology's impact. Potential Impacts: This application could dramatically expand manufacturing capabilities on Earth and in space: In situ resource utilization. A far greater range of materials and products will be available from the limited palette offered by in situ resource extraction techniques; Reduced equipment and material upmass for off-Earth habitats. Ready- to-use highly specialized construction materials (radiation hardened, compressive/tensile, light or dense) from an extremely low starting mass; Structured biomaterial production. New ready-to-use macro, micro, and molecular manufacturing techniques for traditional biomaterials such as wood, bone and shell; New and novel biocomposite creation. The ability to create completely novel material composites from any base material that cells can be engineered to produce. Suggested Mission Contexts: ISS part manufacturing. A 'minimal working example' making a finished biomaterial part aboard the International Space Station; A long-term Mars habitat. 'Cradle-to-grave' use at a hypothetical Mars habitat, covering everything from tools to construction materials. Alternate Abstract: Imagine being able to print anything from tools and composite building materials to food and human tissues. Imagine being on Mars with the ability to replace any broken part, whether it's a part of your spacesuit, your habitat, or your own body. We propose a technique that would allow just that. By printing 3D arrays of cells engineered to secrete the necessary materials, the abundant in situ resources of atmosphere and regolith become organic, inorganic, or organic-inorganic composite materials. Such materials include novel, biologically derived materials not previously possible to fabricate.

habitats↗

NASA NTRS2015

Biomaterials Out of Thin Air: in Situ, On-demand Printing of Advanced Biocomposites

Upmass is the single most significant limitation of our current space mission capability. Although biomaterials and biocomposites have mass, strength, flexibility, and self-healing properties that could significantly reduce upmass, their use is limited by the following drawbacks: Expensive, specific production. Many biomaterials can only be produced as part of significant support ecosystem; Inaccessible functional customization. The grain of wood, the porosity of bone, and so on are an integral part of the materials' desired mechanical properties, but are not deterministic when the material is naturally grown; Limited compositions. Most biomaterials (unlike metal, plastic, etc.) cannot be easily combined or modified to produce new materials. This project builds on recent advances in: Synthetic biology. Libraries of standardized genetic parts which can be used for controlled cellular material production, delivery, and binding; 3D printing. Commercial off-the-shelf components which can be used to make of a pico- to nanoliter cell deposition system; Tissue engineering. Proven cell-compatible support hydrogels and scaffolds can be modified to bind the deposited biomaterials of interest. Objectives: Feasibility and benefit analysis. Two mission contexts span the concept's scope (see below); Proof-of-concept demonstration. A simple grid of two proteins, fluorescent for easy detection, to validate the core technology concept; Proposed implementations for follow-on work. Avenues for future work on each core component (host cell, production control, material delivery, material binding, etc.); Complementary studies exploration. A survey of other emerging areas (in situ resource utilization, protein engineering, etc.) with the potential to multiply our technology's impact. Potential Impacts: This application could dramatically expand manufacturing capabilities on Earth and in space: In situ resource utilization. A far greater range of materials and products will be available from the limited palette offered by in situ resource extraction techniques; Reduced equipment and material upmass for off-Earth habitats. Ready- to-use highly specialized construction materials (radiation hardened, compressive/tensile, light or dense) from an extremely low starting mass; Structured biomaterial production. New ready-to-use macro, micro, and molecular manufacturing techniques for traditional biomaterials such as wood, bone and shell; New and novel biocomposite creation. The ability to create completely novel material composites from any base material that cells can be engineered to produce. Suggested Mission Contexts: ISS part manufacturing. A 'minimal working example' making a finished biomaterial part aboard the International Space Station; A long-term Mars habitat. 'Cradle-to-grave' use at a hypothetical Mars habitat, covering everything from tools to construction materials. Alternate Abstract: Imagine being able to print anything from tools and composite building materials to food and human tissues. Imagine being on Mars with the ability to replace any broken part, whether it's a part of your spacesuit, your habitat, or your own body. We propose a technique that would allow just that. By printing 3D arrays of cells engineered to secrete the necessary materials, the abundant in situ resources of atmosphere and regolith become organic, inorganic, or organic-inorganic composite materials. Such materials include novel, biologically derived materials not previously possible to fabricate.

habitats↗

NASA NTRS2015

3D Printing of Advanced Biocomposites on Earth and Beyond

Human exploration off planet is severely limited by the cost of launching materials into space and re-supply. Thus materials brought from earth must be light, stable and reliable at destination. Using traditional approaches a lunar or Mars base would require either transporting a hefty store of metals or heavy manufacturing equipment and construction materials for in situ extraction; both would severely limit any other mission objectives. Long-term human space presence requires periodic replenishment, adding a massive cost overhead. Even robotic missions often sacrifice science goals for heavy radiation and thermal protection. Biology has the potential to solve these problems because it can replicate and repair itself, and do a wide variety of chemical reactions including making food, fuel and materials. Synthetic biology can greatly enhance and expand life's evolved repertoire. Using natural and synthetically altered organisms as the feedstock for additive manufacturing could one day make possible the dream of producing bespoke tools, food, smart fabrics and even replacement organs on demand. To this end our lab has produced a proof-of-concept bioprinter with nearly one-cell resolution. Genetically engineering yeast cells to secrete bioproducts subsequent to printing allows the potential to make biomaterials with a fine microstructure. Imagine a production system that, at a few micron scale resolution, can add mollusk shell for compressive strength per unit mass, spider silk or collagen for tensile strength per unit mass, and potentially biologically-deposited wires. Now imagine what new products can be enabled by such a technology, on earth or beyond

Metals↗

NASA NTRS2015

3D Printing of Advanced Biocomposites on Earth and Beyond

Human exploration off planet is severely limited by the cost of launching materials into space and re-supply. Thus materials brought from earth must be light, stable and reliable at destination. Using traditional approaches a lunar or Mars base would require either transporting a hefty store of metals or heavy manufacturing equipment and construction materials for in situ extraction; both would severely limit any other mission objectives. Long-term human space presence requires periodic replenishment, adding a massive cost overhead. Even robotic missions often sacrifice science goals for heavy radiation and thermal protection. Biology has the potential to solve these problems because it can replicate and repair itself, and do a wide variety of chemical reactions including making food, fuel and materials. Synthetic biology enhances and expands life's evolved repertoire. Using organisms as feedstock, additive manufacturing could make possible the dream of producing bespoke tools, food, smart fabrics and even replacement organs on demand. Image what new products can be enabled by such a technology, on earth or beyond!

Manufacturing↗

NASA NTRS2014

3D Printing of Advanced Biocomposites on Earth and Beyond

Human exploration off planet is severely limited by the cost of launching materials into space and re-supply. Thus materials brought from earth must be light, stable and reliable at destination. Using traditional approaches a lunar or Mars base would require either transporting a hefty store of metals or heavy manufacturing equipment and construction materials for in situ extraction; both would severely limit any other mission objectives. Long-term human space presence requires periodic replenishment, adding a massive cost overhead. Even robotic missions often sacrifice science goals for heavy radiation and thermal protection. Biology has the potential to solve these problems because it can replicate and repair itself, and do a wide variety of chemical reactions including making food, fuel and materials. Synthetic biology can greatly enhance and expand life's evolved repertoire. Using natural and synthetically altered organisms as the feedstock for additive manufacturing could one day make possible the dream of producing bespoke tools, food, smart fabrics and even replacement organs on demand. To this end our lab has produced a proof-of-concept bioprinter with nearly one-cell resolution. Genetically engineering yeast cells to secrete bioproducts subsequent to printing allows the potential to make biomaterials with a fine microstructure. Imagine a production system that, at a few micron scale resolution, can add mollusk shell for compressive strength per unit mass, spider silk or collagen for tensile strength per unit mass, and potentially biologically-deposited wires. Now imagine what new products can be enabled by such a technology, on earth or beyond.

Biology↗

NASA NTRS2014

Biomaterials Out of Thin Air: In Situ, On-Demand Printing of Advanced Biocomposites: A New Materials Design and Production Technique Using 3D-Printed Arrays of Bioengineered Cells

We have completed the proof of concept described in our Phase I proposal, a two-material array of nonstructural proteins. We created an implementation of each step in our technology concept and demonstrated its critical functionality. The biological chassis and printing hardware we created as part of this work can be re-used for future work by inserting a material coding region upstream of the fluorescent tag. Overall, we showed that our technology concept is sound. The mission benefit analyses, as described in our Phase I proposal, are complete and contained in this report. These calculations show that our technology can save hundreds of kilograms of upmass for a potential planetary human habit construction mission: the mass per habitat module can be reduced by approximately one third if the biomaterials are manufactured on Earth and included in the mission upmass, and the full 240 kg per module can be saved if the materials are derived entirely from in situ resources. Mass savings between these two extremes is expected for an actual mission, depending on the level of in situ resource extraction technology. We have shown that continued advancement of this technology concept for use in a space mission environment is justified. Our survey of future development pathways proved extremely informative in light of the lessons learned from our proof of concept work and mission scenario analyses. For example, we were able for the first time to distinguish between the levels of functionality provided by production of structural proteins, other polymers such as polysaccharides, and true organic-inorganic composites such as bone and mineralized shell. This new information represents a significant advance in formulating specific applications, and key enabling technologies, for our proposed concept. We surveyed potential collaborations with other projects and synergies with enabling technologies that are developing. We have received requests for collaboration from other institutions, including labs at Stanford University and Drexel University. We have also received visits from industry, including Organovo, a tissue engineering company, and Autodesk, a major 3D and materials design software company. Finally, we have been in touch with the team behind the 2013 NIAC Phase ll 'Super Ball Bot-Structures for Planetary Landing and Exploration' and are planning to develop our biomaterial printing technology with the goal of enabling tensegrity-based rovers such as theirs to use lighter, more robust materials. A smooth transition from TRL 2 to TRL 3 assumes that the implementations of the technology concept which demonstrate critical functionality are also pathways for future development; while this is the case for most hardware or software projects, the multidisciplinary nature of our project, particularly the biological aspect of it, means that this is not always true. For example, as part of this work we showed that although there are large number of known genetic parts that correspond to non-structural materials, this is not true for sequences for structural organic proteins, let alone biominerals. These realizations allowed us to further subdivide our concept into more detailed development areas, some of which are clearly established at TRL 3, others of which were newly identified sub-technologies moved from TRL 1 to TRL 2. Similarly, although a single feasibility /benefit analysis is sufficient for advancement from TRL 2 to TRL 3, not all potential benefits to a technology concept as broad in scope as ours are apparent at TRL 2. Both our future pathways survey and our proof of concept work highlighted that the true mass savings potential of our technology concept cannot be quantified without modification of existing materials modelling tools to take into account the possibility of positional materials properties customization. Therefore, we have simultaneously both advanced one potential set of applications of our technology concept from TRL 2 to TRL 3 and also identified a previously unknown set of applications and advanced it from TRL 1 to TRL 2. Overall, we have moved the original formulation of our concept forward from TRL 2 to TRL 3, and the expanded formulation of it presented in this document has been advanced from a combination of TRL 1 and early 1RL 2 to an overall late TRL 2. We have also identified the key areas necessary for both short-term and long-term advancement, and made recommendations for specific future work in the most promising directions. With future work on a 1-2 year timeframe to continue advancement to overall TRL 3, we will be well positioned to begin work on a specific space mission technology insertion path.

Biology↗

NASA NTRS2019

Myco-Architecture off Planet: Growing Surface Structures at Destination

Our work focused on filling major select key technical knowledge gaps, and technical aspects to be addressed in a Phase II proposal were identified such as the secretion of glues or plastics by the fungi or bacteria to form biocomposites. Specifically, we raised the technical TRL by assessing the growth of in-house mycelial-producing strains on potential food substrates and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages to their use off planet. Growth of the mycelia on sawdust and powdered nutrients including dried, powdered algae, was used as a baseline. We measured growth as a function of temperature, tested the relevant material properties of the mycelia products produced, and measured the mass of input and output volume for production per volume of material. Mycotecture was produced in a bag simulating the proposed mission implementation. Post-production such as heat treatment (as is done with terrestrial mycotecture)was assessed.The material properties of the dried, frozen and baked mycelial outputs included density, strength,thermal insulation and flame retardation. Tensile/compression testing on biocomposite material specimens was performed to obtain three-dimensional elastic constants, as well as to examine deformation and fracture behavior. These mechanical tests were performed on both dormant and activated samples to understand the evolution of the structural material. In addition, experimental data obtained from the mechanical testing was used to build a failure prediction model that accounts for material anisotropy. This aided in future structural design through a quantitative understanding of the mechanical limits of the material. To examine the texture, defects, fracture surfaces of the material, high-resolution microstructural imaging was utilized before and after the mechanical tests. This microstructural analysis informed us about the macro-structural behavior and influenced structural design. Thermal decomposition analysis was also performed tounderstand the thermal limits.

Biocomposites↗

NASA NTRS2021

Chemical Reactivity of In-Situ Lunar Dust for Biotoxicity Assessment

How does the chemical reactivity of in-situ lunar dust compare to Apollo samples currently stored in curation facilities here on Earth? Essential investigations of this question will help us to further mitigate exploration risks for future human explorers on the Moon and will also provide critical information for astrobiologists and space biologists using the Moon for scientific inquiry. Apollo 14 dust biotoxicity studies, carried out by the NASA Lunar Airborne Dust Toxicity Assessment Group (LADTAG), included numerous cellular and animal experiments. Intratracheal instillation and inhalation studies in rats both showed Apollo 14 dust to be intermediate in toxicity compared to low-tox titanium dusts and high-tox quartz dusts of similar particle sizes. The collective results were used in models to establish a safe exposure limit for astronauts. Although LADTAG took extensive steps to preserve what chemical reactivity may still have existed in the samples, it is simply unknown if they possessed true in-situ chemical reactivity or if that reactivity has decayed. Initial gas loss on collection and other alterations, and even intermittent exposure to Earth-normal conditions during subsequent decades of handling, obscure a forensic reconstruction of the initial state. Because a mineral dust’s chemical reactivity influences its biotoxicity, researchers have developed methods to “activate” lunar dust and simulants. Past studies that modeled impact processes and radiation in the lunar environment suggest that in-situ lunar dust is likely to be more chemically reactive than Earth-exposed samples. Because of these results, in-situ measurements are warranted. Since the lunar surface is heterogeneous, dust biotoxicity is expected to vary from site to site due to particle size, mineralogy, physical characteristics, degree of space weathering, and chemical reactivity. This circumstance dictates dust assessments at a suite of lunar sites enabled by CLPS opportunities. Dose, location, and duration of particle exposure will also affect biological responses. In-situ chemical reactivity measurements can inform cross-cutting collaborative research campaigns such as astrobiology studies examining regolith interactions with organisms and its ability to preserve chemical and structural biomarkers, as well as space biology investigations that examine regolith-microbe interactions relating to life support systems, plant growth, biomining, and development of regolith biocomposites.

Jon C Rask↗