Abstract
Space missions require sustainable life support systems capable of producing oxygen and biomass under microgravity. We report the use of acoustic levitation to trap and manipulate the filamentous cyanobacterium Limnospira indica PCC 8005 during parabolic flights. Within a millimeter-scale fluidic chamber, this helical microorganism rapidly assembles into thin layers under a standing ultrasonic wave. Stable trapping in microgravity requires substantially less acoustic power (0.42 mW) than on Earth (1.4 mW), highlighting the potential for energy-efficient bioprocessing in space. Monte Carlo simulations and light attenuation modeling show that layered structuring enhances light penetration, potentially overcoming the “compensation point" limitation in bulk cultures. These findings open new perspectives for photobioreactors using acoustic manipulation to boost photosynthetic efficiency and reduce energy demands for oxygen and biomass production in space.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank ESA and the Carnot IPGG for funding the PhD thesis of B. Dupont. The participation in the parabolic flights campaign was financially supported by the CNES (French Aerospace Agency). The authors thank Corinne and Franck Chauvat (CEA Saclay) for their advises on cyanobacterial culture and insightful discussions. The authors thank G. Gauquelin-Koch (in charge of the Life Science topic at the CNES) and T. Bret-Dibat (in charge of the Matter Science topic at the CNES). The authors also thank T. Paris (Novespace) for his help in optimizing the experimental setup to make it fit the constraints of the Airbus Air Zero-G. The authors finally thank J.-M. Peyrin (Neurosciences Paris Seine, Sorbonne Université) and P.-E. Lecoq (NPS and PMMH) for their help during the preparation of the setup and the flights.
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B.D., X.B.-G., J-L.A. and M.A.: conception and fabrication of the setup. B.D., J.-L.A. and M.A.: conceptualization and methodology. B.D., J.-L.A. and M.A.: samples preparation, data acquisition, analysis and simulations. B.D., S.B.-V., J.-L.A. and M.A.: writing original draft, review and editing. S.B.-V., J.L.A. and M.A.: supervised the project. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
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Dupont, B., Benoit-Gonin, X., Vincent-Bonnieu, S. et al. Illumination optimization and low-power trapping of Limnospira indica PCC 8005 using bulk acoustic waves in microgravity. npj Microgravity (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-025-00553-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-025-00553-1
