「ミニ地球」：宇宙における人類の未来 | Isabel Santos de Sousa | TEDxE2SPPORTO

生物再生型生命維持システムは、「ミニ地球」とも呼ばれ、月や火星への長期ミッションで宇宙飛行士の生存を支える可能性のある方法として紹介されています。これらのシステムは、植物、微生物、菌類、藻類、昆虫などの生物を利用して、廃棄物の再利用、酸素の生成、食料の栽培、医薬品の生産を支えます。また、同じアプローチが遠隔地の地域社会、災害地域、そして地球上の将来の都市にどのように役立つかについても触れています。

• 植物や微生物などの生物を利用した生命維持システム
• 宇宙での廃棄物再利用、酸素と食料の生産
• 宇宙飛行士の身体と精神の健康への効果の可能性

How can we live in space? As humanity prepares to return to the Moon and venture towards Mars, this question becomes more urgent than ever. In this talk, Isabel Santos de Sousa introduces a possible solution: bioregenerative life support systems. These “mini-Earths” use living organisms such as plants, microbes, fungi, algae and insects to recycle waste, produce oxygen, grow food and even support the production of medicine in space. Discover how these systems could protect astronauts’ physical and mental health, while also inspiring sustainable solutions for remote communities, disaster zones and future cities on Earth. This talk invites us to see space exploration not as an escape from our planet’s problems, but as a way to help solve them. Isabel Santos de Sousa is a bioengineer and PhD candidate from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. Her research focuses on the development of sustainable bioregenerative life support systems for space exploration using microorganisms. Isabel was awarded the Blue Young Talent Scholarship (2022), the Gulbenkian New Talents Scholarship (2023) and the Pedro Nunes Best Iberian Master’s Thesis in Planetary Sciences and Exploration Award (2025). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx