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NASA will pay you up to $750,000 to come up with a way to turn CO2 into other molecules on Mars
Missions to Mars will need to be as lean as possible, meaning that using any available resources on the Red Planet will be of utmost importance. With that in mind, NASA just announced the CO2 Conversion Challenge, which asks teams of scientists and inventors to come up with a way to turn CO2 into molecules that can be used to produce all manner of things. And there's big prize money on the line.
To start, NASA is asking teams to focus on converting CO2 to Glucose, but the language of the challenge suggests you can approach that goal from any angle you wish.
[...] Teams or individuals who want to participate will need to register by January 24, 2019, and then officially apply by February 28. Experts will review each plan and award up to $250,000 spread across up to five individuals or teams.
The next phase of the competition is still a bit light on details. NASA says it'll announce the rules and criteria once Phase 1 is complete, but the administration has revealed that it's ready to award up to $750,000 to the individual, team, or teams that can demonstrate that their system(s) work as intended and could be used by astronauts on Mars.
"Future planetary habitats on Mars will require a high degree of self-sufficiency," NASA explains. "This requires a concerted effort to both effectively recycle supplies brought from Earth and use local resources such as CO2, water and regolith to manufacture mission-relevant products. Human life support and habitation systems will treat wastewater to make drinking water, recover oxygen from CO2, convert solid wastes to useable products, grow food, and specially design equipment and packaging to allow reuse in alternate forms."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:07PM (1 child)
Is this to feed the illegal immigrant children the cabal has been sending to mars to be slaves or sex slaves?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:14PM
Almost. It's to help feed and clothe the Mars Musky Sex Harem.
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:13PM
beer beer beer beer
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beerity beer, wonderful beer!!!!
(bloody Asgardians!)
(Score: 4, Informative) by suburbanitemediocrity on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:14PM (5 children)
the Soviets had a program where they found I believe 6m^2 of Chlorella (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorella [wikipedia.org]) was sufficient to keep a person alive.
I've grown it before. Pretty trivial. One of my goals in life is to run a biosphere 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2 [wikipedia.org]) type experiment, except not be retarded about it.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:20PM (2 children)
The Wikipedia article you linked says 8 m2.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:29PM
He'll order the other 2m2 from Amazon. I believe the Biosphere2 protocol allows deliveries.
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:30AM
OK, sorry, it's been a long time (> 20 years) when I read the paper.
I didn't realize the article referenced it. Good to know. Chlorella's interesting stuff. Spirulina too, but I've never played with it. Vivariums are fun. I built some in grade school. They all died, but some I'veread about have been going for decades.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday September 05 2018, @10:46PM (1 child)
Kudzu, or whatever that invasive vine on my wall is. Send a seed, land on mars needing a machete to cross the habitat.
With enough headroom, bamboo grows like hell, and is useful and edible. May not be the best at photosynthesis, but it's gotta be pretty good.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:42PM
You forgot your >sarcasm tag? I'm pretty certain that bob_super realizes that the kudzu and the bamboo have to grow INSIDE of the human habitats. It wouldn't do to have the kudzu crawling up the walls, and weakening the walls. Or, to have the bamboo scratching at the ceiling/roof, and eventually piercing the top of the habitat.
But, your post can be used to point out that any plant growth is going to have to be monitored, forever. Pollen will be getting into EVERYTHING, which could be very bad. Moisture might be deadly, if allowed to accumulate in, on, or near equipment. Roots penetrating in the wrong places could be as bad as either of the previous potential problems. The spread of seeds into the wrong places will have to be watched for. Some volunteer crops might sound nice, until some kind of grass starts growing from a control panel - maybe the controls of an airlock.
This is a case where "zero tolerance" may be the only policy possible!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:13PM (2 children)
the opening words to many a scam.
Pay the 3 million in grant money to get the job done, rather than appealing to the desperation of a few grad students....
Source: Someone who reviews a of grants...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:33PM (1 child)
Shitload? Fuckton?
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(Score: 2) by archfeld on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:48AM
Butt Load
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buttload [wiktionary.org]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:33PM (2 children)
Lots of problems are going to have to be solved, if there is to be a viable base, let alone a colony, on Mars. This is a good start. Define a problem, then make it public, and offer rewards for solutions. Your name doesn't have to be Musk or Bezos to come up with some critical solution to a seemingly insoluble problem. All that is required is a modest to an excellent education, and the ability to think outside the box. (Said education should probably be STEM related - but maybe the "soft sciences" will offer something worthwhile?)
This makes me believe that NASA is getting serious.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:42AM
If this is an indication that NASA is serious about Mars, then they've been serious about space elevators for nearly 20 years now.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @05:52PM
Come on, has the "soft sciences" ever offered anything worthwhile before?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:39AM
There's this one: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=28838 [soylentnews.org]
and surely algae can be tuned to consume CO2 and form it into something useful. Just need some heavy clear mylar to let the sunlight in while retaining the water: https://www.professionalplastics.com/MYLARFILM [professionalplastics.com] and a mechanical cycle to keep the sunlight feeding a slurry-bath instead of a thin scum on the inside of the plastic.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Informative) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:40AM
NASA has been doing this for decades
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Thursday September 06 2018, @09:27AM (3 children)
Sounds like another case of spending money to solve a problem for which there is already a known good solution.
What they're looking for is called "plants". You want to convert CO2 to sugars? Plant some fruit trees and collect them from the fruit, getting breathable oxygen as a by-product.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:39PM (2 children)
Plants are insanely ineffecient and requires a vast infrastructure and many also are picky about light (for instance, Mars is quite a bit further away from the sun than what we are - enough so that solar panels doesn't make sense even in orbit).
Energy also will be at a premium, so I assume they want something with a better effeciency, with a short ramp-up time on initial startup (plants takes between weeks to years before you can harvest).
Know of any good idea to recover the resources in all that lignin in such a resource-starved enviornment?
But yeah, ferns would probably be handy - if they find a good source of nitrogen (plants get extremly cranky without this).
However, it does makes me curious - are there any fruit trees that will bear fruit at such low light conditions?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:20PM
They can make sense depending on the mission profile. After all, the Juno spacecraft [wikipedia.org] uses solar panels, and it is orbiting Jupiter, which gets even less sunlight.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @06:27PM
The ferns would also make nice decorations for the eventual Mars yuppie bars.