DNAwesome

Ankara | Build a Space Biology Superhero

A New Age of Space

High-Level Project Summary

One of the biggest hazards of a human mission to Mars is the radiation. Radiation is one of the most menacing of the five hazards. Above Earth’s natural protection, radiation exposure increases cancer risk, which is why long-term Mars missions are too risky. Our biology-space-hero is called "TARDIODURANS". The name comes from Tardigrades who can protect themselves from radiation by making a 'shield' from a certain protein, and Radiodurans; This bacterium has resistance to radiation. It can continuously grow in the presence of chronic radiation and has an efficient DNA repair process. We combine their genes to ensure fully protection from the radiation for the astronauts in space.

Link to Final Project

https://solingenneubau.my.canva.site/build-a-space-biology-superhero/#page-2

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFN4mbWajo/i8nXu92-jvrXlATudNsRJg/edit?utm_content=DAFN4mbWajo&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Detailed Project Description

TARDIODURANS! What is it for?

The bacteria we developed is for astronot suits and electrical circuits like solar panels. In space, we humans or the electrical circuits cannot be protected from the hazardous radiation. Our hypothesis is to utilize the method of gene transformation in bacteria. D. Radiodurans have the ability to survive in vacuum and radiation. Thus, tardigrades can go up to 30 years without food or water and develop a protein shield (dsup) in radioactive environment. Therefore, we thought of combining the features of tardigrades and bacteria. This superhero will be able to survive in space without any nourishment for a significant amount of time and protect spacesuits and other electronic circuits like solar panels from radiation.

IMPORTANT FACTS

We decided to use Horizontal Gene Transfer to make this superhero come alive. According to our research, HGT from bacterium to animal is more effective and can provide a selective advantage or otherwise become maintained in the genome facilitating its detection. Therefore, we suggest HGT from D. Radiodurans to tardigrades.

MARS

One of the biggest hazards of a human mission to Mars is the radiation.

Radiation is not only stealthy, but considered one of the most menacing of the five hazards.

Above Earth’s natural protection, radiation exposure increases cancer risk, which is the reason why long-term Mars missions are too risky. (The lifetime risk of dying from cancer is 24%.)

What do you hope to achieve?

We hope to achieve the astrounats to maruz kalmak way less radiation and therefore protect them from the hazardous conclusions it brings In addition, it would be really nice to be able to reduce the radiation in electrical suits in space and therefore help them work properly.

What hardware, or software did you use to develop your project?

We used Canvas to develop our website.

For the images, we used Pinterest as it gave us a variety of images that were both useful and artistic.

Space Agency Data

NASA' s site and data helped us explore the hazards of space travel and we tried to find a solution towards the hazards of radiation. We used the data that NASA offers regarding the hazards that an astronaut experiences both on long space trips like going to Mars, or hazards that they have while they are at the space station. Data obtained from NASA provided us with valuable information about when these hazards occur, why they occur, and how we can find a solution.

In addition, we used data provided by National Geographic to have information about various creatures provided in our website.

Hackathon Journey

Our experience in this Space Apps was extraordinary. This was our first time joining a hackathon like this, but we can surely say it won' t be the last. We completely dedicated 2 days of our lives to Earth and Space; what kind of problems NASA was facing; and whether we could develop a solution or not. We learned a lot about the preparation astronauts need to travel to space, the difficulties that they are going to encounter, how they must take care of their health so that everything is alright. The thought of what we created in our minds in this hackathon to become real, even its possibility is what kept us going. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to broaden our horizon!