Scientists have devised a new way to get food from asteroids. Space food is one of the things necessary for the development of space, and a method of actively using asteroids to explore places far from Earth has emerged.
In an experimental report published recently, a research team at Western University in Canada presented the idea of producing edible biomass from organic compounds found in asteroids. Getting food is very important in long-duration space missions, and this method attracted attention because it used asteroids that can be found anywhere in space.
The core of the method the research team came up with is thermal decomposition. First, high temperatures decompose the organic compounds in the asteroid. Here, hydrocarbons are obtained and fed to microorganisms that eat organic matter. The end result of this process is edible biomass that can be consumed by humans.
Tacos made with peppers grown on the ISS. Astronauts make their own food, but much of it is taken from Earth.
Researcher Eric Piye, who participated in the experiment, said, “Biomass is a renewable organic resource that comes from plants and animals. What interests us in particular are meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites, which contain up to 10.5% water and an abundance of organic matter. He said.
He continued, “This type of meteorite is very rare, but the ground sample from the asteroid Bennu taken by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe in 2023 was similar,” he said. there.” “We will send out 50 tons of biomass, or up to 6,550 tons, which will provide enough food for one astronaut to last 600 to 17,000 years,” he said.
If humanity is going to explore distant space for a long time, the food problem must be solved. Currently, astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS) regularly receive food from Earth. However, sending materials from Earth to space is incredibly expensive.
Photo of Osiris Rex collecting soil samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu.
For this reason, scholars are developing methods of agriculture in space, as seen in the movie “The Martian.” Although progress has been made, it is not normal to grow crops in an environment that is completely different from Earth’s environment.
Researcher Eric Piye said, “In this experiment, we did not make real food from asteroid samples. We only measured food extracted from asteroids using a newly designed method of water-insoluble organic matter, “As each one was measured, the -difference in the amount of biomass that was measured large,” he explained.
He said, “The idea of using asteroids as loose food for human exploration of the solar system is very innovative,” but he added, “We need to explore how we can mine and manipulate asteroids, and is it really edible biomass. eatable and what it looks like.” “There are still a lot of points,” he admitted.
Reporter Jeong Ian [email protected]
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