![]() SBE represents an extension of the standard astronautics paradigm in meeting NASA’s Space Technology Grand Challenges (STGCs) for expanding the human presence in space, managing resources in space, and enabling transformative space exploration and scientific discovery 8, 9 (Fig. 1a) borrows elements from a number of related fields such as the synthetic biology design process from Bioengineering, astronaut sustainability 3, 4 and mission design from Astronautics 5, 6, environmental-context, and constraints from the Space Sciences, and living systems habitability and distribution concepts from Astrobiology 7. ![]() It is time to formally establish the field of space bioprocess engineering (SBE) to build this nascent community, train the workforce and develop the critical technologies for planned deep-space missions. Additionally, there is almost no formal definition of the scope, performance needs and metrics, and technology development cycle for these systems. While there has been progress in the demonstration and evaluation of these benefits for specific examples in this field such as for food production, and waste recycling, there is only just emerging possible consensus on the scope of the application of biosynthetic and biotransformative technologies to space exploration. Biotechnologies may have mass, power, and volume advantages compared to abiotic approaches for critical mission elements for long-term crewed space exploration 1, 2.
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