There are not any grocery shops on Mars, and resupply from Earth is many months away. As a lot meals as future astronauts to the pink planet might pack for the journey, inevitably, they’re going to need to create some meals of their very own in an inhospitable atmosphere. Whether or not they go the fanciful farm-to-table route with domestically sourced potatoes, like Matt Damon’s character did within the 2015 movie The Martian, stays to be seen. However they could have an much more science-forward choice.
Creating protein out of skinny air.
That is the objective of a partnership between the European House Company and an organization known as Photo voltaic Meals, fashioned out of a scientific analysis program lower than a decade in the past. Photo voltaic Meals opened its first large-scale manufacturing facility in 2024.
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The undertaking, dubbed HOBI-WAN (for “hydrogen oxidizing micro organism in weightlessness as a supply of diet”) in a nod to the Star Wars films, is an outer house model of a course of that Photo voltaic Meals has been engaged on already right here on Earth. That effort includes rising micro organism in a vat with water, air and vitamins, after which drying out the micro organism, turning them right into a protein powder known as Solein for human consumption.
A key subsequent step can be to test Solein production on the Worldwide House Station.
“Offering a sustainable and nutritious meals provide which meets the vitality necessities of the crew is without doubt one of the largest challenges in human spaceflight exploration past low Earth orbit,” ESA mentioned in a blog post. “In instances the place pre-deployed meals depots or steady resupply missions from Earth are impractical, resource-heavy, or technically unfeasible, cost-effective alternate options are required.”
Solein begins moist and is dried by a course of that features centrifugal power and spray drying.
From micro organism to protein
The central objective of the HOBI-WAN undertaking is to find out whether or not manufacturing of the protein-rich powder can happen in microgravity circumstances.
The method is advanced, however basically it’s going to be letting nature take its course.
“Photo voltaic Meals produces Solein by a course of known as gasoline fermentation,” Arttu Luukanen, the corporate’s senior vice chairman of house and protection, tells me. The gasoline fermentation course of, he says, creates single-celled organisms that feed on hydrogen gasoline and use it to “sequester” carbon. From there, the micro organism are fed “minerals of life” utilizing ammonia as a nitrogen and hydrogen supply.
All of the components go right into a bioreactor together with water and gases which might be pumped in “a bit like a giant SodaStream,” Luukanen says. This gives the micro organism with the correct atmosphere to breed, which they do in a short time. As soon as the micro organism have reproduced to a adequate amount, they’re harvested. A few of it’s put aside to seed the subsequent spherical within the bioreactor, whereas the remaining is totally dried and pasteurized.
These dried and pasteurized micro organism kind the Solein product, which consists of 78% protein, 6% fats (primarily unsaturated), 10% dietary fiber, 2% carbohydrates and 4% mineral vitamins. Luukanen says the powder might be flavored in any variety of methods and by itself imparts “a really delicate taste of umami.”
The HOBI-WAN undertaking can be heading to the Worldwide House Station to see if Solein might be made in house.
Easy methods to make protein in house
Solein manufacturing can be more durable to do in house. The weightless atmosphere, plus the restricted cargo capability and decreased house for the bioreactor, add challenges that ESA and Photo voltaic Meals imagine they will remedy.
“[The] foremost distinction for the experiment onboard the ISS is the dearth of gravity, which suggests there is no such thing as a buoyancy, which alters significantly how liquids and gases behave,” Luukanen says. The opposite problem is restricted bodily house. Photo voltaic Meals makes use of bioreactors that may maintain 20,000 liters or extra, whereas the bioreactor heading to the ISS can be considerably smaller — a “few tens of liters.”
Additional steps can be required for gasoline security, course of monitoring, high quality assurance and maintainability, as there will not be bioprocess engineers on board to babysit the method. The product made in house additionally will not be dried right into a powder, not less than not on the ISS. Within the occasion of a leak, having a cloud of powder floating round in a zero-gravity atmosphere would not be perfect.
So in house, Solein will seemingly be served up as a paste.
Soleil in its powder kind right here on Earth. The house model can be extra of a paste.
Recycling in house
The final large issue is the components. They will need to be altered to account for the dearth of assets out there in a long-term house flight. Recycling has lengthy been a key part of residing in house, and that’ll be true for Solein manufacturing.
Meaning utilizing CO2 from crew respiration and recycling the hydrogen gasoline made when the ISS makes use of electrolysis to turn water into oxygen for the crew. On Earth, making Solein requires a number of water.
There will even be substitutions, equivalent to utilizing urea as a substitute of ammonia, since ammonia could be harmful if there have been an accident. However that does not imply that astronauts can be utilizing urine like they do for “recycled coffee.”
“On Earth, we use ammonia, however for the ESA undertaking, we have determined to make use of artificial urea as a substitute, primarily as a result of it’s not doubtlessly hazardous like ammonia is that if there’s a spill,” Luukanen says. “Recovering the urea from urine is in precept attainable, however given the small portion of urea wanted, it might not make sense, particularly if the urea extraction from urine includes advanced and heavy gear.”
Ought to the HOBI-WAN undertaking achieve success, it’s going to assist unlock long-term house exploration for people, together with a possible journey to Mars.
Feeding astronauts on long-duration missions
A visit to Mars is a a lot larger time dedication than an tour to the moon. NASA’s upcoming Artemis II mission will see astronauts circle the moon for the primary time in practically half a century, however the journey will final solely 10 days. When it comes to meals, it is not that large a deal. However Mars — eyed by house businesses and Elon Musk alike — is far, a lot farther away, and travel times will stretch to months and months. Heading to the pink planet, astronauts might want to pack greater than a picnic.
Ought to the Solein undertaking show profitable, the quantity of meals it generates might theoretically feed a staff of astronauts for lots of of days whereas utilizing a lot much less cargo house than today’s space meals. Luukanen says that, because the undertaking is being designed, the one factor astronauts would want to hold could be mineral salts, they usually would not want that a lot.
“Even for a five-[person] crew, 900-day mission to Mars, we’re speaking of [less than]100 kilograms of mineral salts,” he says.
Different applied sciences might also assist recycle nitrogen and minerals, which might enable astronauts to reuse these supplies onsite, additional extending meals provide.
Utilizing the protein powder, astronauts might make all kinds of meals with the correct extra components. Luukanen says Photo voltaic Meals has developed recipes starting from ice cream to cream cheese ravioli. A few of them had been showcased throughout NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge, which highlighted strategies for long-term meals options, together with a no-light food-growing technique known as Nolux and a closed ecosystem that may autonomously develop meals and keep bugs to be used in an astronaut’s weight-reduction plan.
It won’t be what you’d anticipate from a Michelin-starred restaurant and even your neighborhood deli, nevertheless it’ll seemingly be higher than a gentle weight-reduction plan of Mars-grown baked potatoes.
