NASA organized a contest to solve one of the great challenges behind a space mission: what are the astronauts going to eat. He called him the Deep Space Food Challenge, in which more than 200 companies registered. This week, finally, it will announce the finalists, within a group of proposals that exceed the limits. There is everything: even a protein shake made with the breath of people.
Astronauts have based their diet mainly on prepackaged foods. This type of food, which is currently used on the International Space Station, has a shelf life of one and a half years, explained Ralph Fristshce, manager for space crop production at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, to MIT Technology Review.
The Food expiration date represents a key hurdle to NASA plans to send an astronaut mission to Mars. Also to carry out longer exploration trips to the Moon. The US space agency hopes to carry out the first manned moon landing since 1972 in 2025. The crew is expected to stay a little over a week, but the idea is that they can return at the end of this decade for longer stays.
Of the 200 companies that signed up, 11 teams advanced to phase 2 last January. They each received $20,000 in financing. Participants had to come up with options to feed a crew of four for three years.
They didn’t have to put together the entire diet, but they did need to create a variety of nutritious foods for the astronauts. This Friday, May 19, it will be known who will advance to phase 3.
Food from the breath of astronauts
“Phase 2 was kind of a kitchen-level demonstration,” said Angela Herblet, project manager for the NASA challenge. “Phase 3 will challenge teams to scale their technologies,” explained to MIT Technology Review.
Air Company, based in New York, was the company that proposed a system that would use the carbon dioxide expelled by astronauts in space to produce alcohol. This liquid would then be used to grow food.
“It’s making food out of the air”, said Stafford Sheehan, co-founder of the Air Company. “It sounds like magic, but when you see it working it’s much simpler. We take CO2, combine it with water and electricity and make proteins.”he added. The company already develops alcohols from CO2 for jet fuel and perfumes.
This alcohol can be used to feed the yeast and, with this input, produce something that the astronauts can eat. For the competition, Air Company introduced a protein shake that its creators explained is like a similar shake made with seitan, a vegan meat substitute. “He’s actually very rich,” Sheehan said.
crops in space
Interstellar Lab, a Florida company, is another of the 11 shortlisted by NASA. Your model is called Nucleus and aims to grow crops in space. It is made up of a modular set of small capsules the size of a toaster, which work autonomously. Each one can regulate its own humidity, temperature and irrigation system, with the aim of growing different vegetables.
“We’re bringing a bit of the Earth ecosystem into space,” said Barbara Belvisi, the company’s founder and chief executive officer. But they do not only propose to harvest vegetables. As they explained, the capsules could also be used to build hatcheries for some insectssuch as black soldier flies, an alternative source of protein.
The astronauts would spend three to four hours per week planting, pruning and cultivating. However, hemost of it would be controlled by AI-powered software. Interstellar Lab has also designed larger inflatable autonomous environments, called BioPods, intended for future installation on the Moon or Mars.
Finalists announced this Friday will face new tests in the coming months. It won’t be until April 2024 that NASA will present the winners, ushering in a new era of sustainable space food.