Can 3D bioprinting be a key for exploratory missions and human settlements on the Moon and Mars?

Abstract Fifty years after the first human landed on the Moon mankind has started to plan next steps for manned space exploration missions. The international space agencies have begun to investigate the requirements for both a human settlement on the Moon and manned missions to Mars. For such activities significantly improved medical treatment facilities on-board the spacecrafts or within the extraterrestrial settlements need to be provided as no fast return opportunities to Earth would exist anymore in case of severe trauma or illness. Bioprinting is believed to play a significant role as it could offer the possibilities to produce patient-specific tissue constructs in a semi-automated manner. Therefore, both the space agencies and the bioprinting community have started to study possible applications of bioprinting technologies in space. Besides utilisation of bioprinted tissue constructs for the treatment of injured astronauts bioprinting will become relevant for the fabrication of three-dimensional tissue models for basic research, e.g. concerning effects of microgravity and cosmic radiation on cells and tissues. This perspective article describes the current state of the art including medical scenarios for new far-distant space exploration missions, first approaches towards establishment of bioprinters in space and which limitations have to be resolved to use bioprinting under the specific conditions of space flight like altered gravity conditions.