Describe how and why you chose your iGEM project.
Mars has long fascinated mankind, but never before has a manned mission to Mars been as feasible as it is today (Ehlmann et al. 2005). With the ever-growing interest in exploring the Red Planet, the use of local resources is also becoming increasingly important, especially the exploitation of existing water resources, as future manned Mars missions will require a reliable and sustainable source of water on site (NASA 2025). However, the natural water resources in the form of over five million cubic metres of ice are contaminated with the highly toxic perchlorate salt and are therefore unusable (Christensen 2006). The World Health Organisation (WHO) sets a guideline of 7×10⁻⁶ weight-% perchlorate for drinking water (World Health Organization 2016), but a suspected perchlorate concentration of up to 1 weight-% in Martian water would significantly exceed this value (Rzymski et al. 2024). Transporting water from Earth is not an option due to the extremely high cost (Jones 2023). Established recycling systems such as the Water Recovery System cannot fully recover the water, which is why an additional supply of water is necessary (Williamson et al. 2023).
The development of a method to remove perchlorate and produce drinkable water is therefore of crucial importance for future manned Mars missions. The aim of our project is to develop a sustainable system for in-situ water purification on Mars that avoids dependence on costly and logistically difficult supplies from Earth. To this end, we will genetically engineer the bacterium Bacillus subtilis to produce the enzymes perchlorate reductase and chlorite dismutase to efficiently degrade perchlorate (Rothschild et al. 2025). This space-tested, well-established bacterium grows rapidly and forms spores that remain stable for years (Rothschild and Mancinelli 2001; L. J. Rothschild et al. 2025). This makes it an ideal organism for reliable perchlorate removal.
We also plan to construct a mini-bioreactor to ensure optimal perchlorate degradation conditions for Bacillus subtilis and characterise the enzyme chlorite dismutase in vitro, using the resulting scientific data to optimise our system and make it available to other iGEM teams.
Christensen, P. R. (2006): Water at the Poles and in Permafrost Regions of Mars. In: Elements 2 (3), S. 151–155. DOI: 10.2113/gselements.2.3.151.
Ehlmann, Bethany L.; Chowdhury, Jeeshan; Marzullo, Timothy C.; Collins, R. Eric; Litzenberger, Julie; Ibsen, Stuart et al. (2005): Humans to Mars: a feasibility and cost-benefit analysis. In: Acta Astronautica 56 (9–12), S. 851–858. DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.01.010.
Jones, Harry W. (2023): Take Material to Space or Make It There? NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 94035-0001, USA.
L. J. Rothschild; G. A. Roberts Kingman; C. R. Stoker; S. J. Hoffman (2025): Detoxifying Mars: The Biocatalytic Elimination of Omnipresent Perchlorates. NASA.
NASA (2025). Humans to Mars – NASA. Online verfügbar unter https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/humans-to-mars/.
Rothschild, L. J.; Mancinelli, R. L. (2001): Life in Extreme Environments. In: Nature 409 (6823), S. 1092–1101. DOI: 10.1038/35059215.
Rothschild, Lynn; Roberts Kingman, G.; Stoker, C.; Hoffmann, S. (2025): Detoxifying Mars: The Biocatalytic Elimination of Omnipresent Perchlorates. NASA Ames Research Center. Online verfügbar unter https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/pdf/2713.pdf, zuletzt geprüft am 04.04.2025.
Williamson, Jill; Wilson, Jonathan P.; Robinson, Kristina; Luong, Hieu (2023): Status of ISS Water Management and Recovery. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812; The Boeing Company, Houston, TX 77058.
Describe how and why you chose your iGEM project.
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