地外人工光合成材料研究进展

Research progress of extraterrestrial artificial photosynthetic materials

太空探索已成为人类共同目标,重返月球、载人火星等人类历史上的重大里程碑任务已逐步实施。如何实现地外极端环境下人类生存和发展已成为载人太空探索的基本能力和基础技术。由南京大学和钱学森空间技术实验室提出的地外人工光合成技术,模拟地球绿色植物的自然光合作用,利用密闭空间废弃资源或地外天体环境中丰富的资源,通过光电催化方法原位、加速、可控地将二氧化碳转化成为氧气和含碳燃料,大幅度降低载人航天器的物资供应需求,支撑可承受、可持续的载人深空探索。本文回顾了近年来国际航空航天领域利用二氧化碳转换生成氧气和碳氢燃料的现有方法,并深入探讨面向地外原位资源利用的人工光合成材料研究进展,期望深化对地外人工光合成材料与技术的认知,有力支撑载人航天发展。

Space exploration has become a common goal around the world. Major milestones such as returning to the Moon and manned Mars exploration are gradually implemented. Realizing the survival and development of human beings in the extreme environment outside the Earth has become the basic capability and technology of manned space exploration. The extraterrestrial artificial photosynthesis technology proposed by Nanjing University and Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology simulates the natural photosynthesis of Earth’s green plants by utilizing waste resources in confined space or abundant resources in the environment of extraterrestrial celestial bodies and converting CO2 into O2 and carbon-containing fuel in an in-situ, accelerated, and controllable manner through photo-electrocatalytic method. It thus can greatly reduce the supply demand of manned spacecraft and support sustainable manned deep-space exploration. This paper reviews the current international aerospace methods of converting CO2 to generate O2 and hydrocarbon fuels in recent years, and analyzes the research progress of artificial photosynthesizing materials for extraterrestrial in-situ resource utilization. It is expected to deepen the understanding of extraterrestrial artificial photosynthetic materials and technologies and contribute to the development of manned space flight.