Keeping spacefarers fed is a tall order
For decades, space agencies around the world have devised creative ways to feed them
usually with freeze-dried or canned rations that take up room on board
And the grocery bills are eye-popping. Just think that an astronaut consumes between half a kilo and 1.5 kilograms of food per day
and every kilogram we ship to space can be 20,000 US dollars
So imagine every meal can be something like $10,000. So what if we just make the food we need in space instead of bringing it from Earth
On Tuesday, an experiment designed by researchers at Imperial College London took off to see if a device known as a bioreactor could grow food or even fuel from cell samples
The researchers hope it will be a stepping stone to more complex manufacturing systems for other uses
on our planet and beyond. Low gravity allows for the manipulation of molecules
in ways that are impossible on Earth. That way we can manufacture, let's say, cancer drugs in space
and bring it back down for research or therapeutics. But down the line, when we have the moon base
we need these kind of bioreactors to be able to really sustain
permanent settlement of human civilization in this environment. Scientists already showed they can harvest lettuce
on board the International Space Station. In the future, there might be even more on the menu
Wilson Dysard, Al Jazeera