ESA Challenges Extreme Space Food Tech
The European Space Agency (ESA) has begun the study phase of its pilot project, HOBI-WAN, which is a test program to find novel means to nourish astronauts during lengthy missions to the Moon or Mars without relying on Earth imports. The project, supported by ESA’s Terrae Novae Exploration Programme, investigates the possibility of producing protein in space using a combination of bacteria and gases.
The aim of the project is to test the concept of producing protein from bacteria in microgravity conditions and this experiment would be conducted on the International Space Station (ISS). The prime contractor for the project is OHB System AG working with the Finnish food-tech firm Solar Foods to get the Solein gas-fermentation process ready for the reception of the space environment.
Feeding astronauts on deep-space missions remains one of the biggest challenges in human exploration. Given that resupply missions are very expensive or outright non-viable, the solutions of food production have to be both innovative and sustainable. The objective of HOBI-WAN is to demonstrate that a protein-rich powder can be produced consistently under microgravity conditions.
The primary eight-month period will concentrate on the construction of a ground model for the Solein manufacturing system. Subsequent stages of the mission will include the assembly and testing of flight hardware. The space experiment will be housed in a standard middeck locker containing a bioreactor, incubator, sensors, and automated systems. Astronauts aboard the ISS will collect samples during the mission.
The system involves the supply of hydrogen, oxygen, and CO₂ to a bioreactor with bacteria. The new source of food production is Solein, a protein, and not from the sun or farmland, but rather fermentation. The urea space will replace ammonia as the nitrogen source. The team is of the view that this technique can be a step toward the full recycling of air and waste in a closed-loop life-support system.
The space experiment will be housed in a standard middeck locker containing a bioreactor, incubator, sensors, and automated systems. Astronauts aboard the ISS will collect samples during the mission..
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