Project Description

This postdoctoral project aims to advance biological in situ resource utilization (BISRU) to support bioastronautics and bioregenerative life support systems for lunar and Martian exploration and habitation. The research will focus on leveraging plant, microbial, and fungal systems for bioprocessing essential resources and sustaining human life in extraterrestrial environments. Key research areas include the development of innovative technologies and sensors for processing frozen water and regolith to enable surface greenhouse agriculture. Additionally, the project will address the critical challenge of Martian soil toxicity, particularly due to perchlorates, and devise methods to mitigate these effects for successful surface agriculture. The project seeks to pioneer solutions that integrate biological systems with advanced engineering to create sustainable, self-sufficient habitats on the Moon and Mars. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, contributing to the forefront of space exploration and life support research. 

Start Date

Flexible/2 years 

Postdoc Qualifications

The incumbent will have earned a PhD in a science or engineering discipline, and have qualifying experience applicable to this project. The project is profoundly interdisciplinary and requires an individual capable of working in diverse teams across several departments and colleges. We seek a creative individual with a demonstrated track record of cross disciplinary innovation who can contribute to currently funded NASA projects, including the Lunar Effects of Agricultural Flora (LEAF) experiment on the Artemis 3 Mission to deliver the first Woman to the Moon.

Co-advisors

Dr. Ali M. Bramson
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Purdue University
Email: BramsonA@purdue.edu
Website: eaps.purdue.edu/bramson/
Office Phone: 765-494-0279

Dr. D. Marshall Porterfield
Professor
Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Purdue University
Email: porterf@purdue.edu
Website: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ABE/people/ptProfile?resource_id=7380
Office Phone: 765.412.6792 

Bibliography

Egea-González, I., P. C. Lois, A. Jiménez-Díaz, A. M. Bramson, M. M. Sori, J.-A. Tendero-Ventanas, J. Ruiz (2022), The stability of a liquid-water body below the south polar cap of Mars. Icarus, 383, 115073, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115073.

Bramson, A. M., L. M. Carter, G. W. Patterson, M. M. Sori, G. A. Morgan, L. M. Jozwiak, C. A. Nypaver, J. T. S. Cahill (2022), Burial Depths of Extensive Shallow Cryptomaria in the Lunar Schiller-Schickard Region. The Planetary Science Journal, 3, 216, doi:10.3847/PSJ/ac8670.

Monje, O., Stutte, G.W., Goins, G.D., Porterfield, D.M., Bingham, G.E. 2003. Farming in space: Environmental and biophysical concerns. Adv. Space Res. 31: 151-167.

Porterfield, D.M. 2002 The biophysical limitations in physiological transport and exchange in plants grown in microgravity. J. Plant Growth Regul. 21: 177-190.

Park, J., Salim, M.L.S., Wan, W.W.W., Rademacher. A., Wickizer, B., Schooley, A,. Benton, J., Cantero, Araceli, A., Argote, P.F., Ren. M., Zhang, M., Porterfield, D.M., Ricco, A.J., Roux, S.J., Rickus, J.L., 2017. An autonomous lab on a chip for space flight calibration of gravity-induced transcellular calcium polarization in single-cell fern spores. Lab on a Chip. (DOI: 10.1039/C6LC01370H)