When it comes to the exploration of space, we, as human beings, are very limited in how much our bodies can handle. Studies done from the International Space Station (ISS) show that being in space and being exposed to microgravity can have detrimental impacts on your physical health the longer you are there (Sarabi et al., 2023). However, recent discoveries towards the benefits of 3D bioprinting in space point to a future where we can explore other planets by sending humans to them and creating a series of colonies that do not have to rely entirely on imports from Earth.
To better understand this phenomenon, it’s best to first provide the definition of bioprinting. According to the journal from MDPI titled, An Introduction to 3D Bioprinting: Possibilities, Challenges, and Future Aspects, bioprinting is defined as, “the printing of structures using viable cells, biomaterials, and biological molecules” (Kačarević, et al., 2018). A lot of bioprinting research has been towards the printing of delicate organs and other organic material in order to advance the medical field. The main hindrance of bioprinting on Earth is the need of a scaffolding, something to hold the printed biomaterials in place to create more complex structures. When it comes to bioprinting in space, however, it was realized that printing in microgravity removes the necessity for a scaffolding because there are no/minimal external forces being applied to the structure.
As exciting as that sounds, it is necessary to account for the feasibility of certain operations. For example, the cost to bring a 3D bioprinter to space would range between $41,400-$295,800 depending on its weight, and that’s without accounting for a human operator, which would increase the range to be between $136,400-$545,800. It’s also important to consider how microgravity might affect the performance of bioprinters. The main concern would be that the printer nozzle would be damaged, making it incredibly difficult to fix in space; however, this will not be a necessary concern. Extrusion-based bioprinting has become the most popular form of bioprinting, and it does not have such issues and is highly repeatable (Sarabi et al., 2023).
After accounting for factors of feasibility such as cost and performance, the journal from ACS discusses the incredibly strong possibility that bringing tissue chips as space biomedicine can help heal astronauts in the future when they are exploring exoplanets or even starting a colony on Mars. From the same journal, it talks about how microgravity can affect the blood flow, stem cell differentiation, and even the gene regulation of the humans who stay in its strange circumstances too long. It even threatens the ability of someone to remain in homeostasis and regenerate tissue (Sarabi et al., 2023).
If we were to successfully 3D bioprint complex structures and organs, we would be able to embark on extraordinarily long expeditions into the far reaches of space, and also, we would be able to print our own materials without having to solely rely on infrastructure and materials from our home base of Earth.
While this technology still has a long way to go, many studies are already being conducted on the ISS to better this technology and explore its abilities in microgravity (Love, 2023). There are even prospects of potentially creating microgravity laboratories that can orbit Earth to create organs and that are hosted by artificial intelligence (AI), allowing for a faster development time without needing a human on the satellite (Sarabi et al., 2023). The future is bright with bioprinting and our potential for exploring the universe grows exponentially with its existence.
References
Sarabi, M., Yetisen, A., & Tasoglu, S. (2023, May 8). Bioprinting in Microgravity. American Chemical Society. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10265578/
Kačarević, Ž., Rider, P., Alkildani, S., Retnasingh, S., Smeets, R., Jung, O., Ivaniševic, Z., & Barbeck, M. (2018, November 6). An Introduction to 3D Bioprinting: Possibilities, Challenges, and Future Aspects. MDPI. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6266989/
Love, J. (2023, December 20). 3D Bioprinting. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/3d-bioprinting/
[NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli swaps components inside the BioFabrication Facility (BFF)]. NASA.
