Synthetic Biology and Space Exploration

In the last decade the field of synthetic biology has exploded, in part because of the declining costs of genetic sequencing and an upswing in bio-research funding. With researchers capable of designing biological devices for tailor made purposes synthetic biology is at the forefront of modern engineering practice. With that in mind researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Lab have begun pondering ways in which an engineered organism might aid, or indeed catalyze, a new era of space exploration.

 “Not only does synthetic biology promise to make the travel to extraterrestrial locations more practical and bearable, it could also be transformative once explorers arrive at their destination,” explained Adam Arkin, director of Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division. Arkin and others recently published a paper detailing their ideas in the Journal of the Royal Society.

Included in Arkin’s proposal is an outline of how synthetic biology could be used to benefit fuel generation, food production, biopolymer synthesis and pharmaceutical manufacturing. According to the study synthetic organisms could meaningfully reduce the amount of mass required for a deep journey into space. Furthermore, once on a destination planet synthetics could provide a long term buffer between first contact and the docking of resupply missions.

Underpinning all of Arkin’s ideas is the fundamental nature of biological manufacturing. Unlike abiotic manufacturing, where raw materials have to be harvested from afar, biological systems have evolved to gather their resources locally to build wonderful constructs. Today, researchers finally have the tools to exploit this wonderfully evolved system and mold it to their own design.

Admittedly, members of Arkin’s team know that there’s still much work to be done before an “infrastructure-scale bio-synthetic system” could support space exploration missions. “We’ve got a long way to go since experimental proof-of-concept work in synthetic biology for space applications is just beginning,” said Menezes, a postdoc in Arkin’s lab. “[B]ut long-duration manned missions are also a ways off,” he quipped.

Though synthetic biology may have a number of uses for future space colonists it could also be a destructive force on foreign worlds.

Throughout history the migration of microbes and animals from one place to another has often had detrimental effects. While symbiosis and speciation is an option for clashing biodiversity its more likely that one species will outcompete the other. With that in mind any introduction of synthetic or natural biology into a space mission (let alone a foreign world) should be undertaken with the utmost caution.

Still, if undertaken strategically, a mission involving synthetic biology might be just the prescription for a planet whose space exploration ambitions are weighted by a plethora of terrestrial concerns.

Source: Berkeley Lab