A team of researchers has launched an experiment to grow sustainable cell-based food for astronauts. The European Space Agency (ESA), Frontier Space, and the Imperial College in London project are advancing food for interplanetary voyages.

The logistics of carrying food and water are extremely challenging and costly, but the new technology aims to develop a small pilot food production plant.

The successful deployment of this technology could accelerate developments in space-based sustainable food production for long-duration space missions.

Frontier Space— a spin-off from Cranfield University in the UK — says it’s vital to build manufacturing facilities “off-world” in order to realize a future wher humans can live and work in space.

Food pilot in space

A key focus of the mission is a microorganism sample return experiment, developed in collaboration with the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and the UKRI Microbial Food Hub at Imperial College London. 

The system will transport biological specimens to space and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. This will provide crucial data about the effects of microgravity, long-term storage, and space transportation on these microorganisms. 

Frontier Space says it will test the integration and stability of lyophilised microorganisms. This protocol will be key to ensuring that the biology doesn’t degrade before it reaches its intended destination, such as Low Earth Orbit, the Moon, or Mars.

“Development of this technique and biological handling protocol is key to enable in-space biomanufacturing,” says Prof. David Cullen, Frontier Space’s Science & Technology advisor and professor of Astrobiology and Space Biotechnology at Cranfield University.

“We dream about a future wher humanity heads off into the dark expanses of space. But carrying enough to feed ourselves on the journey and at our destination would be unimaginable in cost and weight.”

“If just a handful of cultivated cells could provide all our food, pharmaceuticals, fuels, and bioplastics using freely available resources, that would bring the future closer,” adds Dr. Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, director of the Bezos Centre.

The mission also featured Frontier Space’s proprietary autonomous laboratory systems, including sample device hosting, power and data management, and a microfluidics system that tested bespoke microfluidic devices in microgravity conditions.