Support

1. Highlights

This page outlines how the Nanjing-China HP group offers support services to stakeholders and both internal team members and external partners.

We have recorded the project proposal crafted for astronauts, this year's branded products, our established visual standards, picture book content, and our self-evaluation according to the Human Practices Maturity Model.

2. User Manual for Astronaut

Through interactions with multiple stakeholders and reviewing bidding documents from relevant enterprises, we realized the necessity of creating a dedicated user manual:

To help stakeholders and users (astronauts) quickly grasp the project overview of Shivacosmic Greens.
The manual includes fundamental principles of biotechnology to educate non-specialists in biological science.
It serves as training material, assisting astronauts in familiarizing themselves with the equipment's functions and operations prior to missions, thereby increasing overall mission success rates.
By providing a standardized operational procedure, the manual ensures consistency among astronauts, reducing issues arising from individual operational differences.
The user manual offers detailed operating instructions, guiding astronauts to correctly install, initiate, and operate the equipment, thus avoiding performance decline or damage due to mishandling.
With comprehensive instructions and best practices, the manual aids astronauts in maximizing the equipment's performance, enhancing energy efficiency.
A detailed user manual may fulfill compliance and regulatory requirements, ensuring equipment usage aligns with space station or mission standards.

Please read our manual below:

manual.pdf

3. Branded Products

Each year, Nanjing-China produces souvenirs to assist with research activities, project promotion, and related initiatives. Unlike previous years, this year Nanjing-China has developed a systematic line of creative merchandise and, beyond distributing them at events, has opened public sales channels. We believe that by building this product system, we can achieve the following benefits:

Through creative and attractive branded products, we can generate public interest in innovative microbial fuel cells, thereby broadening the project's impact.
Branded merchandise contributes to shaping and reinforcing the project's brand identity, making it more vivid and memorable.
By embedding complex technical concepts into our products, we can deliver scientific knowledge to the public in an entertaining and accessible way, improving overall scientific literacy.
Our merchandise acts as a medium to engage with our target audience, enhancing participation and experience, bringing the project closer to the public.
Selling these products allows us to secure additional funding, supporting further research and promotion efforts.
It strengthens team members' sense of belonging and pride.
It assists in establishing and maintaining a community of supporters, promoting sustained interest and support.

This year, we developed a range of themed products closely aligned with our project's focus:

Notebook: Featuring a dark blue cover with golden imagery, symbolizing that human space exploration is ushering in a golden future.
Badge: Crafted using China's traditional embroidery techniques, blending local culture with synthetic biology.
Canvas Bag: Co-designed with Nanjing University's Nature Association; the text on the front and back combines to form the Chinese idiom "seeing the big from the small," conveying that microorganisms will play an increasingly significant role in macro-scale sustainable development.
Folder: An imprint-style design is added to a transparent document pouch. The design features a petri dish containing a starry sky, with cartoon bacteria exploring their own universe, using romanticism to depict the project's application scenario.
Folding Fan: Innovatively structured so that the fan surface can be conveniently folded into the handle. The fan depicts an astronaut holding a pipette and a potted plant, expressing the concept of a space circular ecosystem.

First Row from Left to Right: Embroidered Badge, Folding Fan, File Folder

Second Row from Left to Right: Notebook, Canvas Tote Bag

Furthermore, we have developed a completely new online sales system. Previously, when iGEM teams wanted to sell their creative merchandise, they faced market access limitations and had to rely on one-on-one promotions or set up dedicated WeChat groups. This approach was inefficient, labor-intensive, difficult to manage, and prone to financial disputes. This year, we utilized the WeChat Mini Program 'Pintuan Ya', a group-buying platform, which enabled us to achieve the following functions:

Easily manage product information, including prices, inventory, product descriptions, and more.
No need for market licensing or approval, allowing iGEM teams to quickly commence commercial operations.
The system enables order management, shipping management, buyer communication, and online payments without the need for manual maintenance of group chats.
The mini-program is completely free to use.
Offers tax exemptions within certain limits, eliminating the need to pay taxes. Legal and tax-related risks are manageable.

4. The First Step: Establish Visual Standards

Many teams create logos and develop various creative merchandise. When the design work is handled by one or two individuals, it's possible to maintain a consistent design style. However, when there's a substantial amount of design tasks, establishing consistent and effective visual standards becomes necessary:

By employing unified visual elements in all promotional materials, we ensure consistent communication, which helps deliver a cohesive message and establish trust and reliability.
This strategy improves work efficiency: clear visual standards make the design and production of materials more streamlined, conserving time and resources and preventing repetitive tasks.
It also promotes team cohesion and aids in the team's sustainable development.

To achieve this, Nanjing-China summarized relevant insights and, within the framework of Chinese culture, introduced a Visual Standards Checklist to assist teams in step-by-step development of their own visual standards.

vss.pdf

5. Picture book collaboration

On April 13, 2024, Nanjing-China had an online meeting with the Fudan iGEM team, SJTU-bioX-Shanghai, NUDT-CHINA, ZJU-China team. We have preliminarily discussed and determined to collaborate on creating a synthetic biology-themed picture book design to promote the popularization of synthetic biology in education and further expand its influence.

Even though the script wasn't finalized, we put together a collection of material for other people to use.

book.pdf

6. Human Practices Maturity Model: Self-assessment

No.	Level	Content
Reflecting on design decisions	High	Extensive and transparent documentation: We have included a "Learning" section in the records of our various human practice activities, which can provide experience and new inspiration and strategies for solving practical problems for our team, other iGEM teams, and a broader range of stakeholders. At the same time, the Nanjing-China team has written a detailed user manual for astronauts on how to use the "Shivacosmic Greens" system during space missions, including how to cultivate microbes, generate electricity, and manage circuits, thereby providing a sustainable life support system for deep space exploration missions. Our visit to the SINO PRO LAW FIRM in Beijing has provided us with legal advice on current issues related to carbon emission rights trading in China, allowing us to provide more detailed successful cases and policy guidance for reducing environmental pollution. Iterative stakeholder engagement: The team has had multiple exchanges with Mr. Zhang and Manager Lin from CASC, collecting feedback from the engineers and adjusting the research direction and experimental design according to the feedback. This has directly led to the birth of the Shivacosmic Greens Hardware module, which ensures that microbial components can be integrated with existing spacecraft electronic systems. In addition, Manager Lin introduced the Space Science and Technology Institute (Shenzhen) as an institution that can provide further support for the Shivacosmic Greens project. Comprehensive and holistic implementation in project design: Our HP activity design follows the "PPPP" principle: Professional, Producer, Public, Policymaker. We not only focus on the opinions of experts and scholars in the field of synthetic biology (Professional) but also visit aerospace departments and agricultural producers to consider the needs of end users (Producer). At the same time, we educate the public about synthetic biology through educational activities and communicate with policymakers (Policymaker) to ensure that the project receives policy guidance.
Exploring and reflecting on context beyond the lab	High	Before the project commenced, members of the HP team conducted extensive literature research, with the Micro-12 project conducted by NASA in 2018 serving as a significant source of inspiration for us to launch Shivacosmic Greens. The HP team regularly engages in in-depth exchanges with the wet lab and dry lab, thereby gaining a more comprehensive understanding and keeping track of the project's progress. Based on practice, we provide experimental suggestions for both dry and wet labs and offer new solutions for project implementation. Field research and visits have made it clearer to us where the current technical pain points and industrial bottlenecks of stakeholders lie, while also obtaining their guidance for the project. At the same time, the Nanjing-China team has written a detailed user manual for astronauts on how to use the "Shivacosmic Greens" system during space missions. Our team participated in a Model United Nations event focused on revising existing space treaties, aimed at discussing and developing new space treaties to address the challenges of future space exploration and resource preservation.
Incorporating diverse perspectives	High	Enlarging the ability to learn from and consult diverse communities and stakeholders, including those who might hold critical views towards the project: We visited multiple stakeholders to understand the needs at the end of the project pipeline. During these visits, there were experts who held critical views of our project. For example, Engineer Li from Changzheng Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. believed that the feasibility of our project in some large power supply fields might not be high. We listened to their opinions and continuously incorporated this feedback into the project's development. Being able to develop feedback mechanisms that encourage stakeholders to participate in each project change: In the "Grain in Ear - World Environment Day" and "Starlight Fair" events, we interacted with participants from diverse backgrounds through puzzle design and interactive discussions, collecting their views and suggestions on the project for subsequent adjustments. Robust documentation on how the feedback was incorporated into the project: During our discussion with SINO PRO LAW FIRM, we documented feedback regarding the strict regulations and policy changes of China's Carbon Emissions Trading Exchange (CCETE). We synchronized these records and feedback by updating them on our WeChat Public Account.
Anticipating positive and negative impacts	High	The exchange with CASC helped the team adjust the research direction, focusing on improving the stability of the microbial system in the space environment, thereby reducing the risk of project implementation and increasing the potential benefits of the project to target users (such as CASC). Through the exchange with the Space Science and Technology Institute (Shenzhen), the team obtained suggestions on the challenges of maintaining a liquid environment for the project in a microgravity environment, as well as insights into waste treatment methods for spacecraft. This feedback helped the team consider alternative designs for the project to enhance the overall practicality of the system and reduce risks.
Responding to human practices work	High	Nanjing-China team, through on-site visits (such as touring the Changshu National Agricultural Science Park), not only gained inspiration for the further development of the project, identified the limitations of traditional agricultural models, but also explored the possibility of applying synthetic biology techniques to address these issues, which directly influenced the project's direction and implementation strategy.
Approaching limitations with integrity	High	Visits to stakeholders (such as the Space Science and Technology Institute) have informed us that if the project needs to be applied in practice, it should consider the actual supply and demand of fecal matter and the rate of electrical energy output under specific circumstances. This has made us realize the importance of numerical calculations, leading us to collaborate with the Dry Lab to conduct thorough numerical calculations on the material flows related to Shivacosmic Greens and to form a report. Additionally, researchers have pointed out that there are special experimental standards in the spaceflight environment. In response, we plan to address this by using well-prepared closed small hardware processed on Earth.