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Crops inside a Mars Lunar Greenhouse unit.
Courtesy Dave Mosher/Business Insider
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I've talked to you about picking the right asteroid, how to securely land on it, the equipment you'll need to mine it, how to give it a propulsion system that could last for centuries, and recycling the mined out asteroid into a Solar System traversing space yacht.
Saving the world one plastic grocery bag at a time. Recycling genius.
What I haven’t talked about is when you and your friends are sitting in the lounge of that space yacht halfway to Ceres, laughing at old Lost in Space episodes, and you get the munchies, and you want something fresh; not frozen, dried, jerked, or canned. This is not a mundane or unreasonable request. The human palate sometimes demands fresh fruits or vegetables to be satisfied, and it may be some time before a true replicator comes along that can actually build something organic, molecule by molecule, and get it right.
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| Mars colony with modules. Courtesy NASA |
Man cannot live on Tang and freeze-dried ice cream alone, so being able to grow food will be a necessary thing for staying on Mars or the Moon for any length of time. While the ability to grow fresh produce is a great asset for cruising to the asteroid belt on your space yacht, for long term residents of Mars it is essential. It will serve as a buffer for the cataclysmic accidents we are already familiar with in space travel. It’s a dangerous business. A lost supply ship could mean starvation to the Mars crew unless they are at least semi self sufficient.
What are the current options? Near the top of the list would be the Mars-Lunar Greenhouse. It is a bioregenerative system, meaning it's self-sustaining for the plants, animals, and microorganisms living in it. After an administration change, NASA’s study of bioregenerative life support systems took a big hit in funding. It shut down the project in 2003 but managed to funnel some grant money to the University of Arizona to study the feasibility of a greenhouse that would produce food, oxygen, and process grey water - all helpful things in space.
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A prototype of the Mars Lunar Greenhouse, a bioregenerative life support system funded in part by NASA. Courtesy University of Arizona.
It is not perfected, and the money for the project ran out in 2017. The Chinese have a similar project under way. It is much further along. Eight Chinese student volunteers spent a year in China's "Lunar Palace 1", the longest stay in a self-contained facility. Their stay ended in May of 2018. The Chinese are planning to go back to the Moon as well If they can get their fusion technology perfected, the helium-3 on the Moon could be a game changer for energy domination.
Although the Mars Lunar Greenhouse is a wonderful thing, it seems a similar setup could be made using an aeroponic system. SpaceX has not said anything about developing a bioregenerative unit for its planned Mars mission. Thawed bologna sandwiches without lettuce and tomatoes for that crew so far. It seems the opportunities in this field for companies to develop support technology are many and varied. It’s need is a given for space, but there may be applications on Earth. Some people may feel their survival bunkers just aren’t complete without a self-contained bioregenerative greenhouse.
The fresh greens and fruit aren’t quite ready for prime time but what about meat? I just can’t picture giant links of sausage hanging/floating from the instrument packages on the Big Falcon Rocket Spaceship like a science fiction-tweaked scene from Das Boot. Probably there will be a tabletop version of the machinery used by Impossible Foods to make their hamburgers from yeast. Their tech is to get yeast to produce the iron-infused chemical heme that gives meat its distinctive flavor.
Also, real meat can be grown from muscle tissue stem cells, forming something that looks and tastes like meat. Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University gave a demonstrative proof-of-concept to "cultured" meat in 2013, but no attempts have been made to scale it up commercially. There are misgivings about public acceptance. This is a very promising technology for adaptation to space travel and long-term stays on Mars and the Moon. The commercial aspects for Earth-bound populations should also be re-visited in light of the increasing certainty of an agriculture/climate relationship.
At the rate technology is moving now, there is a good chance efficient greenhouses and miniature meat labs will provide fresh food to those venturing beyond the Earth's gravity well by the time we get ready to send them. So don't turn down that astronaut gig because of preconceptions about a boring diet in space. Chasing your shrimp salad down in zero g, on the other hand, is a totally different matter for consideration.
Also, real meat can be grown from muscle tissue stem cells, forming something that looks and tastes like meat. Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University gave a demonstrative proof-of-concept to "cultured" meat in 2013, but no attempts have been made to scale it up commercially. There are misgivings about public acceptance. This is a very promising technology for adaptation to space travel and long-term stays on Mars and the Moon. The commercial aspects for Earth-bound populations should also be re-visited in light of the increasing certainty of an agriculture/climate relationship.
At the rate technology is moving now, there is a good chance efficient greenhouses and miniature meat labs will provide fresh food to those venturing beyond the Earth's gravity well by the time we get ready to send them. So don't turn down that astronaut gig because of preconceptions about a boring diet in space. Chasing your shrimp salad down in zero g, on the other hand, is a totally different matter for consideration.
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