如何利用3d打印机在火星生存（双语科技火星宇航员可用3D打印的皮肤和骨头治伤）

In addition to their myriad other responsibilities, the brave Mars pioneers will also have to be ready to deal with all kinds of medical emergencies.

除了无数的其他职责，勇敢的火星先锋者们还必须随时准备应对各种各样的紧急医疗事故。

Some ailments, such as common colds and headaches, may be easy to tackle with medication. To help them with more serious issues, like severe skin burns or bone fractures, scientists from the Dresden University of Technology (TUD) have developed a 3D bioprinter capable of producing human tissue in space.

有些小毛病，如普通的感冒和头痛，可能很容易用药物治疗。为了帮助他们解决更严重的问题，比如严重的皮肤烧伤或骨折，德累斯顿工业大学的科学家们开发了一种能够在太空中产生人体组织的3D 生物打印机。

3D bioprinters are similar to traditional 3D printers, with one key difference. Instead of creating objects from materials like plastic, ceramic, or wood, they deposit layers of biomaterial, made largely from living cells, to build complex human tissue. Since the raw material is not readily available, researchers begin by taking a few cells from the required organ, such as lung or skin, and cultivating them in the laboratory. Once enough cells have been generated, they are used to create "bio-ink", which is loaded into the printer. This, as you can imagine, is no easy task, and despite trying for many years, scientists have still not been able to regenerate human organs for widespread use.

3D 生物打印机类似于传统的3D 打印机，但有一个主要区别——它们不是用塑料、陶瓷或者木头等材料制造物体，而是用大量活细胞制造的生物材料来构建复杂的人体组织。由于原材料不容易获得,研究人员首先从所需器官(如肺或皮肤)中提取一些细胞，然后在实验室中进行培养。一旦产生足够多的细胞，它们就被用来制造"生物墨水"，然后输入打印机。正如你所想的，这并非易事。尽管多年来科学家们一直在努力，但是仍未能使人体器官再生以供广泛使用。

Bioprinting in space has even more challenges. The biggest is finding cells to cultivate and create the required bio-ink. There is also the issue of the printer being able to operate in the low gravity conditions like the one the astronauts will encounter on Mars.

生物打印在太空中面临更多的挑战。最大的挑战是发现要培养的细胞以及制造所需的生物墨水。还有一个问题就是打印机能够在低重力条件下工作，就像宇航员在火星上面临的境遇那样。

The TUD scientists, who are working in collaboration with the European Space Agency's (ESA) 3D Printing of Living Tissue for Space Exploration project, believe the first hurdle can be overcome by using cells from the injured astronaut.

TUD的科学家们相信通过使用受伤宇航员的细胞，第一个障碍是可以克服的。他们目前正与欧洲航天局的太空探索活体组织3D打印项目合作。

"Skin cells can be bioprinted using human blood plasma as a nutrient-rich 'bio-ink', which would be easily accessible from the mission crew members," says Nieves Cubo Mateo, a bioprinting specialist at TUD. The bones can be made with the help of human stem cells and fortified with calcium phosphate bone cement. Mateo says using biomaterial from the astronauts themselves also eliminates the risk of transplant rejection.

TUD的生物打印专家Nieves Cubo Mateo说："人类血浆作为一种营养丰富的'生物墨水'，可以用来生物打印皮肤细胞，皮肤细胞也很容易从宇航员身上获取。"骨头可以在人类干细胞的帮助下被制造出来，并用磷酸钙骨水泥加固。Mateo说使用来自宇航员自身的生物材料打印可以避免移植排斥反应。

To ensure the bioprinter works in low, or zero, gravity conditions, the researchers built one that works upside down. To prevent the bio-ink from flying around, they incorporated plant and algae-based materials to increase its viscosity.

为了确保生物打印机在低重力或零重力条件下工作，研究人员建造了一个倒置工作的打印机。为了防止生物墨水四处飞溅，他们加入了植物和藻类作为基础材料，以增加其粘度。

The TUD researchers, who revealed the first bioprinted bone and skin samples on July 9, 2019, believe that once developed, the technology could help astronauts treat acute injuries. Tommaso Ghidini, head of ESA's Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division, agrees. The expert says, "Carrying enough medical supplies for all possible eventualities would be impossible in the limited space and mass of a spacecraft. Instead, a 3D bioprinting capability will let them respond to medical emergencies as they arise."

2019年7月9日，TUD 的研究人员首次展示了生物打印的骨头和皮肤样本，他们相信，一旦研发出来，这项技术可以帮助宇航员治疗急性损伤。欧洲航天局的结构、机制和材料部门的负责人Tommaso Ghidini同意这个观点。该专家说："受航天器有限的空间和质量限制，宇航员不可能携带足够的医疗用品以应付所有可能发生的意外。然而，3D 生物打印技术可以让他们在紧急医疗事故发生时做出反应。"

知识积累：

pioneer n. a person who is the first to study and develop a particular area of knowledge, culture, etc. That other people then continue to develop先锋；带头人

complex adj. made of many different things or parts that are connected; difficult to understand 复杂的；难懂的；费解的

cultivate v. to grow plants or crops 种植；栽培；培育

generate v. to produce or create sth 产生；引起

encounter v. to experience sth, especially sth unpleasant or difficult, while you are trying to do sth else 遭遇，遇到（尤指令人不快或困难的事）

accessible adj. that can be reached, entered, used, seen, etc. 可到达的；可接近的；可进入的；可使用的；可见到的

eliminate v. to remove or get rid of sth/sb 排除；清除；消除

transplant n. a medical operation in which a damaged organ, etc. is replaced with one from another person （器官等的）移植

acute adj. very serious or severe 十分严重的

本文英文来自DOGOnews，已选入《快捷英语 活页英语时文阅读理解 高二年级19》，参考译文由"快捷英语"整理。转载需注明出处。