Blog

The moon may be humanity’s final frontier, but what will we eat when we get there? Pasta and protein bars made from scratch are just the beginning.

Space fever is approaching at warp speed. In the next two years, NASA plans to send astronauts back to the Moon via its Artemis program; The International Space Station (ISS), designed to orbit for 15 years but now turning 26 in space, will soon be replaced; and scientists are seriously considering the possibility of manned missions in deep space. Add to that the proliferation of tourism projects that grow with deep pockets individuals to the edge of space and that raises a question for a food writer like me: what will we eat when we get there?

“Food is something that keeps astronauts sane,” said Dr. Sonia Brungs, deputy chief of astronaut operations at the European Space Agency. “Good food, the right food with a wide variety, tailored to the needs of individual astronauts, is critical to a successful deep space mission. I think people underestimate how important that is.”

Currently, astronauts receive small food bags containing ready-made meals. These meals are prepared by specialized food manufacturing companies and then freeze-dried, dehydrated or heat-stabilized. Astronauts add water to heat or cool dishes to eat; they can also bring with them special food that reminds them of home (this must also be carefully formulated and heat-stabilized).

There are some prohibitions: anything that is crumbly, such as bread, cannot be carried into space, as crumbs can easily become airborne in a low-gravity environment, which means that they can be inhaled or enter a vital equipment. Salt is limited due to the fact that the body stores sodium differently in space, leading to accelerated osteoporosisand alcohol is also not allowed as it affects the ISS waste water recycling system.

“Newness is definitely a problem,” says Brungs. “Astronauts who have only been in space for six months miss the crunch and the texture. It’s really important for mental well-being to have a variety of textures, and especially for deep space missions, to have a variety of foods to eat.”

In 2021, NASA launched a Food challenge in deep space to discover new ways to create food in space with limited resources, producing minimal waste, while providing safe, nutritious and tasty food that can fulfill a long-term mission in deep space.

Solar Foods, based in Helsinki, is one of eight companies that reached the final phase of the challenge. Their remarkable concept: using space debris to create protein.

“We make food out of nothing, quite literally,” says Artu Luukkanen, Solar Foods’ senior vice president of space and defense. His company discovered an edible microbe in the Finnish countryside that grows by feeding on a mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen. The result is a source of protein from bacteria. Protein can be mixed with a range of flavors or textures to create different types of nutritious food, such as pasta, protein bars, meat alternatives and even egg substitutes

“We started thinking about space food because in any space habitat you have two key waste gases available: hydrogen and carbon dioxide,” Luukkanen said. “So what we’re talking about here is really not just food production technology for space, but something that will be an integral part of the environmental control and life support system.”

Solar Foods protein can be made into a paste or powder and mixed with flour and more typical food ingredients to create protein-enriched foods such as pasta, protein bars and even chocolate. Experiments are ongoing to see if it can be mixed with oils and turned into something with the texture of a steak using a 3D printer.

Fresh food is also a consideration: while vitamin tablets can help, astronauts need fresh produce and are continuing to experiment with how to grow vegetables in this unique environment of zero gravity and zero sunlight. The ISS has its own small vegetable garden on board, known as A vegetablewhere astronauts study plant growth in microgravity.

back to earth An interstellar laboratory in Merritt Island, Florida, developed a modular bioregenerative system to produce microgreens, vegetables, mushrooms and even insects; the company is also a finalist in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge, along with The Enigma of the Cosmos in Melbourne, Australia, a company working on a way to efficiently grow microgreens in space.

One thing that seems likely is that the future of space food will involve fungi. Three of the six finalists in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge are working on ideas around fungi, including Mycorrhizal of Gothenburg, Sweden, who has developed a system that uses a combination of microalgae and fungi to produce mycoprotein (a type of protein that comes from fungi often used in alternative meat products).

“Mushrooms are very versatile,” explains Carlos Otero, who works in the R&D team at Mycorena. “It can grow on different substrates, it grows quickly, and you can design a small and efficient system capable of producing enough food for the crew. It is also very strong, resistant to radiation and easy to store and transport.”

This space food is entirely in a closed loop system, with an end product that can be 3D printed to create food somewhat similar to the texture of a chicken fillet. An added benefit is that their protein source contains all the essential amino acids the human body needs to function.

As opportunities for private companies to enter the space race grow, so do opportunities for private chefs. Chef Rasmus Munch from a Michelin star restaurant Alchemist in Copenhagen is among many ready to take off. Munk recently announced a partnership with SpaceVIP to treat yourself to an immersive dining experience on Space Perspective’s private spacecraft Neptune, where tickets cost £397,000 ($495,000) per person for the six-hour journey to the edge of space.

He is one of many chefs who see the potential in serving deep-pocketed tourists on commercial space flights. But while it’s easy to see that these developments are only for the very, very few who can afford such a trip (or make it as an astronaut), space food development isn’t just about what we’ll eat in zero gravity , but what can we eat on our own planet. NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge is also designed to create advanced food systems that will benefit us on Earth, enabling new avenues for food production in extreme environments and resource-scarce areas.

“We are facing big challenges when it comes to climate change, especially in terms of droughts that affect our food production capabilities,” says Luukkanen. “Space puts this to the ultimate test, where we take resources that are considered waste from other activities and turn them into a value-added product. This is the philosophy of the circular economy. Earth is the best spaceship we’ve ever been on, and it has limited resources.”

For Kristina Karlsson, head of R&D at Mycorena, the same principle applies: “Our project works for resource efficiency on Earth as well as in space,” she says. “There are almost no emissions and almost no waste. Space is just an extreme environment in which you can challenge the development of this kind of project: if it works there, it will work on Earth.”

The third phase of NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge is underway this summer and aims to further test how these projects can work in space-like conditions. It’s something to watch closely: While it’s almost certain that these new foods will form part of the nutritional profile of astronauts in space, it also seems likely that they will influence how we eat on Earth in the future.

BBC.com World table “breaks the kitchen ceiling” by changing the way the world thinks about food, past, present and future.

Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us Facebookor follow us h, and Instagram.