Aussie to test spirulina in microgravity flight

A researcher from the Australian National University is about to take a flight in microgravity, to see whether the protein-rich blue-green alga Spirulina platensis is the Right Stuff as food for space travel.

Spirulina platensis, harvested from green freshwater lakes around the ancient Aztec capital, Teotihuacan, was once an Aztec dietary staple. The Aztecs dried the filamentous cyanobacterium and made a type of bread from it.

Latterly rebadged by botanists as Arthrospira platensis, the cyanobacterium is about to undergo tests in the microgravity environment of a European Space Agency (ESA) A300 Airbus during a power dive over southern France, to see if it could be used as self-renewing nourishment for space travelers on the long flight to Mars, or on the surface of the Red Planet itself.

Four MSc students from the International Space University in Strasbourg, in France, including Australian National University space-science graduate Tom Gordon, will accompany their experimental apparatus on the flight.

The reaction of most humans to their first exposure to microgravity is well known -- not for nothing did NASA astronauts dub their Boeing vehicle the 'vomit comet'. But it is not clear how Arthrospira will respond under simulated conditions of space travel.

Gordon took a postgraduate diploma in science communication after his degree, and is responsible for designing and running the publicity and education programs for the experiment.

Arthrospira was selected to occupy one of the experimental compartments of ESA's Micro Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA).

Gordon describes the multicellular microalga as "extremely adaptable" -- in addition to providing food, large culture tanks would help keep a spacecraft's air breathable by converting exhaled carbon dioxide back into oxygen via photosynthesis.

Gordon said the microalga had not been tested under microgravity, or the hypergravity environment during spacecraft launch. The experiment will determine whether weightlessness will induce changes photosynthesis rates and oxygen production, or metabolism and motility.

The mathematical model developed to predict Arthrospira's productivity and air-scrubbing performance during space flight currently does not factor in any influence of micro- or hypergravity, and current research indicates there is potential for such changes to occur, according to Gordon.

The experiment will fly during the 8th Parabolic Flight Campaign out of Bordeaux, from July 12-29. The results will be published in international research journals, and described in Astrobiology Magazine.

The ISU team is seeking support in the form of sticker placements, naming rites, equipment hire or financial support. Gordon can be contacted on gordon@isu.isunet.edu