SpaceLab

SpaceLab is the space sciences research programme at Singapore American School, where I served as Co-Captain. The team designs original experiments intended for the International Space Station, manages the partnerships and engineering required to fly them, and publishes the findings.

The research I led was a microgravity bioremediation study built around my proposal to apply Pestalotiopsis microspora, a fungus capable of metabolising polyurethane on Earth, to space waste management. The team worked under the advisory of Dr. Amy Choong Mei Fun of the National University of Singapore, an expert in fungal degradation of waste and plastics, whose guidance informed the species selection and experimental approach. The experiment tested whether the fungus could sustainably break down plastic waste in space environments. We designed and built a custom 3D-printed experimental capsule for the ISS containing a liquid pump system that reactivated a lyophilised microspora pellet on orbit, a sealed microspora chamber loaded with polyurethane foam samples, a CO₂ sensor sampling every fifteen minutes, and a camera with LED lighting capturing hourly photographs of fungal growth. Flight software was written in C for Arduino, split between a CLI environment for ground-side component testing and a flight programme handling the 30-day mission sequence.

Periodic increases in CO₂ concentration over the course of the mission indicated active metabolic respiration by P. microspora, providing indirect evidence that the fungus was breaking down polyurethane and using it as a carbon source. The findings were corroborated by visual observations of mycelium growth on the foam samples. The experiment was cut short at 15 days, half of the originally planned 30-day window, when the host system shut down. The recorded trend nevertheless demonstrated the feasibility of cultivating polyurethane-degrading fungi in microgravity, laying foundational evidence for fungal bioremediation in future closed-loop life-support systems.

The work was published in the International Journal of Science and Research, Volume 14(1), as "Solutions for Space Waste: Biodegradation of Polyurethane by Pestalotiopsis Microspora in Microgravity", and the team was subsequently invited to present the paper at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR)'s 41st annual conference.