There aren’t any grocery shops on Mars, and resupply from Earth is many months away. As a lot meals as future astronauts to the crimson planet could pack for the journey, inevitably, they will need to create some meals of their very own in an inhospitable setting. Whether or not they go the fanciful farm-to-table route with regionally 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 possibility.
Creating protein out of skinny air.
That is the aim of a partnership between the European House Company and an organization known as Photo voltaic Meals, shaped out of a scientific analysis program lower than a decade in the past, which 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 vitamin”) in a nod to the Star Wars motion pictures, is an outer house model of a course of that Photo voltaic Meals has been engaged on already right here on Earth. That effort entails 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 might be to check Solein manufacturing 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 means of a course of that features centrifugal drive and spray drying.
Making protein powder from air
The central aim 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 complicated, however basically it will 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” equivalent to ammonia as a nitrogen and hydrogen supply.
All of the substances go right into a bioreactor together with water and gases which are pumped in “a bit like a giant SodaStream,” Luukanen says. This gives the micro organism with the right setting to breed, which they do in a short time. As soon as the micro organism have reproduced to a ample amount, they’re harvested. A few of it’s put aside to seed the following spherical within the bioreactor, whereas the remainder is completely dried and pasteurized.
These dried and pasteurized micro organism type 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 may be flavored in any variety of methods and by itself imparts “a really gentle taste of umami.”
The HOBI-WAN undertaking might be heading to the Worldwide House Station to see if Solein may be made in house.
However can it work in house?
Solein manufacturing might be more durable to do in house. The weightless setting, plus the restricted cargo capability and lowered 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 shortage of gravity, which implies there is no such thing as a buoyancy, which alters enormously how liquids and gases behave,” Luukanen says. The opposite problem is proscribed bodily house. Photo voltaic Meals makes use of bioreactors that may maintain 20,000 liters or extra, whereas the bioreactor heading to the ISS might be considerably smaller — a “few tens of liters.”
Additional steps might 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, no less than not on the ISS. Within the occasion of a leak, having a cloud of powder floating round in a zero-gravity setting would not be best.
So in house, Solein will doubtless be served up as a paste.
Soleil in its powder type right here on Earth. The house model might be extra of a paste.
Scale back, reuse, recycle
The final large issue is the substances. They will need to be altered to account for the shortage of sources accessible in a long-term house flight. Recycling has lengthy been a key part of dwelling in house, and that’ll be true for Solein manufacturing.
Which means 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 loads of water.
There will even be substitutions, equivalent to utilizing urea as an alternative of ammonia, since ammonia can be harmful if there have been an accident. However that does not imply that astronauts might 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 an alternative, primarily as a result of it isn’t 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 could not make sense, particularly if the urea extraction from urine entails complicated and heavy tools.”
Ought to the HOBI-WAN undertaking achieve success, it will assist unlock long-term house exploration for people, together with a possible journey to Mars.
How lengthy might this course of feed astronauts?
A visit to Mars is a a lot greater 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. By way of meals, it isn’t that large of a deal. For missions like Escapade, the place two satellites will travel to Mars, the journey will take two years. Heading to the crimson 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 tons of of days whereas utilizing a lot much less cargo house than in the present day’s house meals. Luukanen says that, because the undertaking is being designed, the one factor astronauts would wish to hold can 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 may 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 types of meals with the correct further substances. 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 eating regimen.
It may not be what you’d count on from a Michelin-starred restaurant and even your neighborhood deli, nevertheless it’ll doubtless be higher than a gradual eating regimen of Mars-grown baked potatoes.
