iGEM Team Calgary

Governments and private enterprises alike are gearing up for travel across the Solar System. Plans to colonize nearby planets are underway, with Elon Musk spearheading the initiative put a human colony on Mars by 2030. In a parallel vein, NASA is planning a manned exploratory mission to Mars as soon as the 2030s. Several other space agencies have similar plans and timelines for their own respective Mars explorations. This exciting time in our history nonetheless comes with the challenges of long-term space travel. Two specific issues which make frequent space missions economically and ecologically challenging are the high cost of shipping materials up to space, and how to sustainably manage the waste that is produced on a spaceship.

This year, our project involves using genetically engineered E. coli to turn human waste into bioplastics. We envision our project as a start-to-finish integrated system that can be used in space to generate items useful to astronauts undertaking early Mars missions. This will solve the problem of waste management by upcycling solid human waste into a usable product. It will also reduce the astronautical costs, as fuel typically used to ship materials to space can be saved.

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