The achievement of manned missions on Mars is one of the main challenges the humanity is going to face in the next future. In this context, the possibility of growing Spirulina (Arthrospira Platensis) intended to produce food for crew members on Mars has been investigated in this work. The experiments have been carried out in a novel device capable to simulate microgravity and an inner atmosphere very similar to the Martian one in terms of chemical composition. This device simulates the conditions taking place within a Martian dome hosting the relevant photobioreactors according to a novel technology recently proposed in the patent literature. The growth medium has been obtained using a mixture, called Martian Medium, consisting of a mixture of Mars regolith leachate and astronauts’ urine simulants to verify the possibility of exploiting in-situ available resources and reducing the payload associated to the mission. The obtained results have shown that A. platensis was capable to grow with a good productivity in a medium containing up to 40 %vol of Martian Medium. Moreover, when using this mixture in the developed device the obtained biomass productivity (∼0.048 g L⁻¹ day⁻¹) was higher than the one correspondingly gained using optimal growth medium and Earth conditions (∼11 g L⁻¹ day⁻¹). Ultimately, the use of Martian Medium in the developed device led to a growth rate much higher than the one achievable on Earth with classical media likely because the CO₂ rich atmosphere was capable to avoid carbon starvation phenomena while microgravity conditions reduced settling and aggregation of cells, thus leading to a better diffusion transport of dissolved nutrients to algae. Considered the obtained productivity and astronauts needs it was estimated that by taking advantage of this technology, a culture of about 15 m³ available within pressurized domes would be sufficient to meet the protein needs of a crew of six members.

在火星上完成载人任务是人类未来将面临的主要挑战之一。在这种情况下，种植螺旋藻（Arthrospira Platenis ）的可能性）旨在为火星上的机组人员生产食物的工作已在这项工作中进行了调查。这些实验是在一种新型装置中进行的，该装置能够模拟微重力和在化学成分方面与火星大气非常相似的内部大气。根据专利文献中最近提出的一项新技术，该设备模拟了火星穹顶内发生的条件，该穹顶拥有相关的光生物反应器。生长培养基是使用一种称为火星培养基的混合物获得的，该混合物由火星风化层渗滤液和宇航员尿液模拟物的混合物组成，以验证利用现场可用资源和减少与任务相关的有效载荷的可能性。所得结果表明，A. platensis能够在含有高达 40%vol 火星培养基的培养基中以良好的生产力生长。此外，当在开发的装置中使用该混合物时，获得的生物质生产力（~0.048 g L ^-1 day ^-1）高于使用最佳生长培养基和地球条件（~11 g L ^-1 day ^-1）相应获得的生产力. 最终，在开发的设备中使用火星介质导致的增长率远高于地球上使用经典介质所能达到的增长率，这可能是因为 CO ₂丰富的大气能够避免碳饥饿现象，而微重力条件减少了细胞的沉降和聚集，从而导致溶解的营养物质更好地扩散运输到藻类中。考虑到获得的生产力和宇航员的需求，据估计，利用这项技术，加压圆顶内可用的约 15 m ³培养物足以满足六名机组人员的蛋白质需求。