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Humans on Mars Initiative

Extraterrestrial fabrication of metal alloys

  • Fabrication

    We intend to use solar radiation as the energy source on Mars, which also contributes towards an emission-free and energetically sustainable metallurgy on Earth.

    © Joris Wegner, University of Bremen
  • A researcher at work.

    Bacterias under the microscope.

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • A researcher at work.

    Labwork at UFT, University of Bremen.

    © Patrick Pollmeier
  • bacteria regolith

    Bacteria growing on a bed of Martian regolith simulant at 75 degrees

    © Antoine Carissimo
  • cathode pellet

    Cathode pellet for electrochemical reduction of regolith made of porous hematite.

    © Reza Fayaz

Extraterrestrial fabrication of metal alloys

Producing metallic materials in an extraterrestrial environment like the surface of the Moon or Mars is a challenging but essential task. We are developing a new electrochemical process for the synthesis of alloyed metal powders without using fossil carbon sources. Instead, we intend to use solar radiation as the energy source, which also contributes towards an emission-free and energetically sustainable metallurgy on Earth. In order to use regolith as the main elemental source, microorganisms will be employed both to selectively extract specific metal ions from the regolith and to actively support the electrochemical reduction. Advanced methods for the synthesis, characterization and theoretical modelling of regolith simulants will drive the development of a novel (bio)electrochemical reactor.

Contact

Project Leader

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucio Colombi Ciacchi
Conrad Naber Endowed Chair          
Hybrid Materials Interfaces           
Production Engineering               
University of Bremen         

Am Fallturm 1, 28359 Bremen, DE
TAB-Building, Room 3.30
+49 421 218 64570
colombiprotect me ?!hmi.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de

 

Publication highlights

Synthesis_structure
© 2024 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
MAPEX Research Highlights|

Synthesis, structural and spectroscopic characterization of defect-rich forsterite as a representative phase of Martian regolith

Muchammad Izzuddin Jundullah Hanafi, Lorenzo Bastonero, Mohammad Mangir Murshed, Lars Robben, Wilke Dononelli, Andrea Kirsch, Nicola Marzari, Thorsten M. Gesing

IUCrJ 11 (2024): 977-990

https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052252524009722

Regolith draws intensive research attention because of its importance…

Location_dependent
© The Authors

Location-dependent flight cost difference from the lunar surface to an orbital fuel depot and its influence on in situ resource utilisation location selection

Sven Julius Steinert, Paul Zabel, Dominik Quantius

Frontiers in Space Technologies 5 (2024) 

doi: 10.3389/frspt.2024.1352213

With increasing relevance for lunar activities, the location selection for in situ resource utilization (ISRU) facilities is a necessary step to identify the most suitable…

JEDI: A versatile code for strain analysis of molecular and periodic systems under deformation

Henry Wang, Sanna Benter, Wilke Dononelli, Tim Neudecker

The Journal of Chemical Physics 160 (2023): 152501

doi: 10.1063/5.0199247

Stretching or compression can induce significant energetic, geometric, and spectroscopic changes in materials. To fully exploit these effects in the design of…

Automated_all-functionals_2024
© The Authors

Automated all-functionals infrared and Raman spectra

Lorenzo Bastonero; Nicola Marzari

npj computational materials 10 (2024): 55

doi: 10.1038/s41524-024-01236-3

Infrared and Raman spectroscopies are ubiquitous techniques employed in many experimental laboratories, thanks to their fast and non-destructive nature able to capture materials' features…

Optimizing lunar
© The Authors

Optimizing lunar regolith beneficiation for ilmenite enrichment

Kunal Kulkarni, Michel Fabien Franke, Muchammad Izzuddin Jundullah Hanafi, Thorsten M. Gesing, Paul Zabel

Frontiers in Space Technologies 4 (2023): 1328341  

doi: 10.3389/frspt.2023.1328341

Over the past few years, the international space industry has focused extensively on advancing technologies…

Understanding-the-role
© 2023 American Physical Society

Understanding the role of Hubbard corrections in the rhombohedral phase of BaTiO 3

G. Gebreyesus, Lorenzo Bastonero, Michele Kotiuga, Nicola Marzari, Iurii Timrov

Physical Review B 108 (2023): 235171

doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.108.235171

We present a first-principles study of the low-temperature rhombohedral phase of BaTiO3 using Hubbard corrected density-functional theory. By…

A-new-fuzzy
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022

A new fuzzy logic approach for reliable communications in wireless underground sensor networks

Damien Wohwe Sambo, Blaise Omer Yenke,  Anna Förster , Jospeh Ndong, Paul Dayang, Idrissa Sarr

Wireless Networks   2 8  (2022) :  3275-3292

doi: 10.1007/s11276-022-03008-7

Nowadays, the exploitation of Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSNs) remains challenging because of the attenuation of…

Martian Landscape
© Joris Wegner, University of Bremen

A vision for Human Mars Exploration made in Bremen

M. Avila, C. Heinicke, L. Colombi Ciacchi, A. Dekorsy, S. Fehrler, K. Rezwan, N. Sieroka, K. Tracht, C. Verseux

44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract PEX.2-0002-22.

Bibcode: 2022cosp...44.3186A

Leading space agencies have the…

Graphical_Abstract
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling of electrochemical oxide film growth-a PDM refinement

Ingmar Bösing, Fabio La Mantia, Jorg Thöming

Electrochimica Acta 406 (2022), 139847

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2022.139847

The Point Defect Model (PDM) is known for over 40 years and has brought deeper insight to the understanding of passivity. During the last decades it has seen…

growth
© The Authors (2021) licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0​​​​​​​

Optimization of growth and electrosynthesis of PolyHydroxyAlcanoates by the thermophilic bacterium Kyrpidia spormannii

Guillaume Pillot, Soniya Sunny, Victoria Comes, Sven Kerzenmacher

Faraday Discussions Advance Article (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.25.465696 preprint available open access: doi: http://biorxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.1101/2021.10.25.465696

The electrosynthesis of valuable compounds by…

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