When we finally end up going to Mars, it'll be nothing like anything we've ever experienced before. It'll also be the longest journey ever undertaken in human history.
So passengers have to be prepared for all eventualities, because there's no rest stop along the way.
3D-printed bone -Images courtesy: ESA
In order to prepare for some of these risks, the European Space Agency (ESA) has teamed up with the University Hospital of Dresden Technical University in Germany (TUD). They're using 3D printing to create the world's first bioprinted skin and bone, using organic raw materials.
Now, technology of this sort has been demonstrated before. But the main point of this particular experiment wasn't just to prove it can be done, but that it can be achieved in microgravity. So of course, they did the 3D printing upside down.
"A journey to Mars or other interplanetary destinations will involve several years in space," said Tommaso Ghidini, head of ESA's Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division, in a press statement. "The crew will run many risks, and returning home early will not be possible. Carrying enough medical supplies for all possible eventualities would be impossible in the limited space and mass of a spacecraft."
3D-printed skin graft
"Instead," Ghidini added, "a 3D bioprinting capability will let them respond to medical emergencies as they arise. In the case of burns, for instance, brand new skin could be bioprinted instead of being grafted from elsewhere on the astronaut's body, doing secondary damage that may not heal easily in the orbital environment."
The 3D printer in question here would use an astronauts own blood to create skin grafts and the like. Or rather, it uses the plasma found in human blood as its 'bio ink'. For one, this is a resource that can be easily harvested, without having to carry a lot of it on the spaceship. For another, using the injured astronauts own blood when possible eliminates any risk of their body rejecting the new part. They also wouldn't have to take the medication normally required to avoid that.
Under normal conditions on Earth, that might be enough. But low gravity means plasma's fluid consistency wouldn't work. After accessing their own plasma, the injured astronauts would then turn to plants and algae, scientists say, to complete the transformation.
During their microgravity experiments however, Nieves Cubo from TUD says plasma just wasn't working well enough. So instead they turned to algae, creating a modified plasma recipe by adding methylcellullose and alginate in order to make the substrate more viscous. The astronauts on a prolonged mission to Mars would also most certainly have plants on board to recycle oxygen, as well as for food, so accessing those materials would be easy too.
And every bit of space not needed for extra medical supplies and the like is space that can be used for other vital purposes.