{"id":66943,"date":"2019-09-30T07:29:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T05:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=66943"},"modified":"2021-09-09T21:26:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T19:26:56","slug":"carbon-dioxide-conversion-challenge-could-help-human-explorers-live-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/carbon-dioxide-conversion-challenge-could-help-human-explorers-live-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon Dioxide Conversion Challenge Could Help Human Explorers Live on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>On Earth, plants convert carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2<\/sub>) into carbohydrates and oxygen \u2013 food for them and oxygen for us to breathe. There aren\u2019t plants on Mars, but there is a lot of CO<sub>2<\/sub>. Technology that takes abundant resources, like CO<sub>2<\/sub> found on the Red Planet, and turns them into useful supplies for human explorers could be key to long-term missions on Mars.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Phase 2 of NASA\u2019s CO<sub>2<\/sub> Conversion Challenge invites the public, academia and industry to build a system that demonstrates the conversion of CO<sub>2<\/sub> in combination with hydrogen \u2013 without the use of plants \u2013 to produce simple sugar molecules known as D-sugars. A \u201csweet\u201d and successful demonstration will earn up to three top teams a portion of $750,000.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to make D-sugars such as glucose in space could fuel bioreactors filled with microorganisms. These systems could rapidly convert sugar into valuable mission products, including nutrients, fuel, adhesives and other materials.<\/p>\n<p>During Phase 1 of the competition, teams from across the country submitted system designs, provided information on how the conversion would occur, and explained how their system would work in space. Submissions also provided fabrication and testing plans. In May 2019, NASA awarded five teams a total of $250,000. Phase 2, the demonstration phase of the competition, will award up to three teams from a prize purse of $750,000, for a total challenge prize purse of $1 million. Participation in Phase 1 is not required to participate in Phase 2.<\/p>\n<div class=\"BorlabsCookie _brlbs-cb-youtube\">\n<div class=\"_brlbs-content-blocker\">\n<div class=\"_brlbs-embed _brlbs-video-youtube\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"_brlbs-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/borlabs-cookie\/assets\/images\/cb-no-thumbnail.png\" alt=\"YouTube\"> <\/p>\n<div class=\"_brlbs-caption\">\n<p>By loading the video, you agree to YouTube&#8217;s privacy policy.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy?hl=en&amp;gl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"_brlbs-btn _brlbs-icon-play-white\" href=\"#\" data-borlabs-cookie-unblock role=\"button\">Load video<\/a><\/p>\n<p><label><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"unblockAll\" value=\"1\" checked> <small>Always unblock YouTube<\/small><\/label><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"borlabs-hide\" data-borlabs-cookie-type=\"content-blocker\" data-borlabs-cookie-id=\"youtube\"><script type=\"text\/template\">PGlmcmFtZSB0aXRsZT0iTkFTQSBDaGFsbGVuZ2VzIHRoZSBQdWJsaWMgdG8gQ29udmVydCBDTzIgaW50byBTdWdhciIgd2lkdGg9IjUwMCIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyODEiIHNyYz0iaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS1ub2Nvb2tpZS5jb20vZW1iZWQvQzF4YVAzWkdzRzQ\/ZmVhdHVyZT1vZW1iZWQiIGZyYW1lYm9yZGVyPSIwIiBhbGxvdz0iYWNjZWxlcm9tZXRlcjsgYXV0b3BsYXk7IGNsaXBib2FyZC13cml0ZTsgZW5jcnlwdGVkLW1lZGlhOyBneXJvc2NvcGU7IHBpY3R1cmUtaW4tcGljdHVyZTsgd2ViLXNoYXJlIiByZWZlcnJlcnBvbGljeT0ic3RyaWN0LW9yaWdpbi13aGVuLWNyb3NzLW9yaWdpbiIgYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuPjwvaWZyYW1lPg==<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis unique competition calls on the public to help NASA solve a complex challenge and develop innovative systems,\u201d said Jim\u00a0Reuter, associate administrator of the agency\u2019s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. \u201cWe look forward to demonstrating\u00a0oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere with an instrument\u00a0onboard the\u00a0Mars 2020\u00a0rover. However,\u00a0the abundance of CO<sub>2<\/sub> in Mars\u2019 atmosphere can enable even more opportunities for in-situ manufacturing of products that will enable humans to live and thrive\u00a0sustainably\u00a0on the planet, and also be implemented on Earth by using both waste and atmosphere CO<sub>2<\/sub> as a resource.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While sugar-based biomaterials can be made on Earth, the current processes cannot be easily adapted for space missions because of limited resources such as energy, water and crew time.<\/p>\n<p>The CO<sub>2<\/sub> Conversion Challenge is part of Centennial Challenges, an element of the Prizes and Challenges program within NASA\u2019s Space Technology Mission Directorate that offers incentive prizes to generate revolutionary research and technology solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation. Centennial Challenges is managed at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For information about the CO<sub>2<\/sub> Conversion Challenge, visit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.co2conversionchallenge.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.co2conversionchallenge.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To participate in challenges, prize competitions and citizen science activities that develop solutions for problems related to NASA\u2019s mission, visit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/solve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.nasa.gov\/solve<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Earth, plants convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbohydrates and oxygen \u2013 food for them and oxygen for us to breathe. There aren\u2019t plants on Mars, but there is a lot of CO2. Technology that takes abundant resources, like CO2 found on the Red Planet, and turns them into useful supplies for human explorers could [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[10744,10743],"supplier":[3827],"class_list":["post-66943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-useco2","supplier-nasa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66943"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=66943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}