Nothing Short of Amazing

Hannah Franklin, JSC Cooperative Education Student

When I was little, I wanted to be a novelist or a musician, not a research scientist; but then I saw the movie Apollo 13 and knew that I had to work for NASA. I’m now working as a full time research intern at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for 15 weeks and loving every minute of the experience. When I’m not at NASA, I'm working towards my Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at Seattle University (I have two years of study left), and afterwards plan to get my PhD in Biochemistry. My research at NASA is with ARES, the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, and is specifically focused on the subject of biologically based life support systems.

One of the main challenges for long term human exploration and habitation of other planets is the lack of resources that are abundant here on Earth. Oxygen, water, food, electricity, and other things we take for granted are either incredibly scarce or difficult to find on other planets. In order to be able to live and work in an alien environment, we either need to transport these resources from Earth or develop ways of creating these resources on the planet, using materials found on the planet. This is referred to as In-Situ Resource Utilization, or ISRU, and is one of the most important ideas of space exploration. Ideally, a life support system that follows the ISRU philosophy will be more efficient, last longer, be safer and more reliable, and create less waste. By using cyanobacteria, bacteria that use photosynthesis to create energy and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen in the process, we hope to create a life support system that uses lunar regolith (lunar soil) as the main substrate in a bioreactor. The cyanobacteria must be siderophilic, or iron loving, in order grow on the iron rich lunar regolith. Additionally, we must fully understand the unique biochemistry of siderophilic cyanobacteria before we can utilize them in a bioreactor, so that the engineers and scientists can work together to create a life support system that is completely ISRU. Because the biochemistry of even a very small and simple organism can be extremely complex, I use a combination of both metagenomic analysis and classical biochemistry techniques in order to narrow down the precise mechanism of iron resistance before performing experiments to confirm the findings.

My experience at NASA so far has been nothing short of amazing. I have the opportunity to work side by side with professionals in my own field and make significant contributions to research that will be used in the ongoing mission to send human beings into space to live and work.