A bacteria-made plastic filled with simulated Moon dust, and no numbers yet
Published
What NASA Glenn reports: a team led by research chemical engineer Allison Christy, with summer interns, mixed a biodegradable plastic with simulated Moon dust and simulated Mars dust. Bacteria could make the plastic from crew waste or CO2. Dust type and amount were varied to tune properties, and the page says the dust made the plastic stronger and easier to process, without giving numbers. Samples are in Glenn's Lunar Environment Structural Test Rig, and several are slated for the MISSE-23 exposure outside the space station. A NASA technical-reports record (ID 20260007758) for a talk by the same researcher on regolith composites names the polymer as poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), PHB. Why it matters for materials: this is a particulate composite, a bio-made thermoplastic filled with mineral regolith. The tests that matter are cold embrittlement over temperature cycles and what vacuum, ultraviolet light and atomic oxygen do to it. The page says the rig tests how the material holds up in extreme temperatures and that MISSE-23 will expose samples to intense conditions outside the station; it does not say which, and reports no results yet. Our take: the feature page does not name the polymer or give loadings, strengths or a temperature range, so on-demand tools and full recyclability are prospective, and the page does not say whether making the plastic from waste has been done in space. For context, our PHB page lists unfilled P(3HB) with a tensile strength of 34.2 MPa and an elongation at break of 3.8 %, a stiff, brittle baseline. Our page on an 80:20 LHS-1 simulant and PLA printed composite lists flexural strengths of 24 MPa and 16.6 MPa (0 and 90 degrees, independent laboratory). What we would watch: the first numbers from the test rig and from MISSE-23. What filler loading would you try first?