Nature-Inspired, Multi-Functional Surface Coatings for Sustainable Life Support in Space and on Earth

目前，现有的水回收、微生物污染机制和电离辐射防护不足以满足未来前往月球、火星和其他地方的长期航天任务。这些因素威胁到材料、生物再生生命支持系统的完整性，但更重要的是，威胁到宇航员的健康，因此，找到可持续生命支持的新方法至关重要。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种受自然启发的多功能表面涂层的设计，它吸收了宇航员在室内活动中产生的过量大气水分。此外，拟议的表面涂层可能会导致微生物的运输，并可能增强辐射屏蔽。受自然的启发，它由人工设计的中空微结构组成，这些结构是通过高分辨率加法制造技术制造的。这项研究的目的是改进被动系统，从而降低空间和地球上应用的能源消耗。

Currently, existing water recovery, microbial contamination mechanisms, and ionizing radiation protection are inadequate for future long duration spaceflight missions to Moon, Mars, and beyond. These factors threaten the integrity of materials, bio-regenerative life support systems, but more importantly, the health of astronauts, and thus, finding new approaches for sustainable life support is crucial. In this research, we present the design of a nature-inspired, multi-functional surface coating, which absorbs excess atmospheric moisture produced by astronauts' indoors activities. Further, the proposed surface coating could lead to the transport of microbes and could enhance radiation shielding. Inspired by nature, it consists of artificially designed hollow microstructures, which are fabricated by a high-resolution additive manufacturing technique. Aim of this research is to improve passive systems, and therefore, reducing the energy consumption of applications in space and on Earth.