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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.01.22.914853

BACTERIAL GROWTH INDUCED BIOCEMENTATION TECHNOLOGY, 'SPACE BRICK' - A PROPOSAL FOR EXPERIMENT AT MICROGRAVITY AND PLANETARY ENVIRONMENTS

Kumar, A.·Dikshit, R.·Gupta, N.·Jain, A.·Dey, A.·Nandi, A.·Venugopal, I.·Viswanathan, K.·Sridhara, N.·Rajendra, A.
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Abstract

We present results of our investigation of microbial induced calcite precipitation for manufacturing space bricks and a proposal for study of this activity in low-earth orbit (LEO). Sporosarcina pasteurii, a urease producing bacterial strain was used to consolidate lunar simulant soil (LSS) in the form of a brick with non-trivial strength properties. Potential of a naturally occurring polymer namely, guar gum, as an additive was investigated for enhancement in compressive strength of bio-consolidated samples. Experimental results of bio-brick exhibited an approximate 10-fold increase in compressive strength with guar gum supplementation in soil. We present results of microstructural analysis of the space bricks and also propose a payload design for related experiments in LEO.

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Kumar, A., Dikshit, R., Gupta, N., Jain, A., Dey, A., Nandi, A., Venugopal, I., Viswanathan, K., Sridhara, N., Rajendra, A.. 2020-01-23. BACTERIAL GROWTH INDUCED BIOCEMENTATION TECHNOLOGY, 'SPACE BRICK' - A PROPOSAL FOR EXPERIMENT AT MICROGRAVITY AND PLANETARY ENVIRONMENTS. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.22.914853

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