An Appetizing Asteroid

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In space, astronauts’ diets usually consist of freeze-dried foods that need to be hydrated with water so as to conserve weight and storage space on missions. Space travelers’ choices are attractive, even including freeze-dried butterscotch pudding and shrimp cocktails on the menu, according to NASA.

But for longer missions or even life in space, scientists are coming up with alternative food methods that could sustain human life. Additionally, the crew at the International Space Station (ISS) currently relies on resupply missions from Earth, which is costly and complicated.

The solution of a research team from Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration goes beyond ideas such as farming on other planets. The research team, led by Eric Pilles, has discovered a way to turn asteroids into food, using the microbes and the organic compounds found on them to produce edible biomass, reported Space.com.

In the study published earlier this month in the International Journal of Astrobiology, the researchers said it was a critical mission: “To deeply explore the solar system, it will be necessary to become less reliant on the resupply tether to Earth.”

The researchers’ solution revolves around a process known as pyrolysis – using high heat to break down the organic compounds found in asteroids in oxygen-free environments. The resulting hydrocarbons would then be fed to microbes that would consume the organic material and produce edible biomass.

The initial idea came from turning plastic packaging into biomass, according to the New York Times. The researchers concluded that plastic and asteroids were similar from a microbe perspective, both containing a large quantity of carbon.

The researchers used a model space rock, Bennu, which NASA retrieved samples from last year on its OSIRIS-REx mission. Bennu’s total mass is around 85.5 million tons, and based on its size and carbon content, “it fits in that nice window of possibly making a tasty treat,” Joshua Pearce, a collaborator on the project, told the newspaper.

The team estimated that in a worst-case scenario, asteroids like Bennu could support one astronaut for around 600 years. However, before turning this theory into practice, scientists must figure out how to mine the asteroids and if the resulting food would be fit for consumption.

“Based on these results, this approach of using carbon in asteroids to provide a distributed food source for humans exploring the solar system appears promising, but there are substantial areas of future work required,” the study concludes.

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