An Investigation of Biodegradation of PET Plastics in Spaceflight

The MicroPET mission consists of an autonomous payload for enzymatic reactions and microbial cultivation with fully programmable serial passaging and sample preservation. The payload is a compact, modular bioreactor system allowing automatic media transfers and precise data monitoring from integrated sensors (e.g., temperature, optical density, etc.). We apply this system to study the biological upcycling of the commonly used polymer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) in space in a two-step system in which PET film is enzymatically degraded and microbially upcycled.

The payload system was launched to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX CRS-26 on November 26th, 2022, out of Kennedy Space Center

Although biological cultivation in space has enormous potential to enable in-situ resource utilization in space stations, current space flight infrastructure for growing microbes without resource-intensive astronaut support is lacking. Here, we present an autonomous payload for enzymatic reactions and microbial cultivation with fully programmable serial passaging and sample preservation. The payload is a compact, modular bioreactor system allowing automatic media transfers and precise data monitoring from integrated sensors (e.g., temperature, optical density, etc.).