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Material harvested from asteroids could be used to sustain astronauts during long-duration space missions.
Researchers from Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration have identified a way to produce edible biomass, aka food, using microbes and the organic compounds found in asteroids. Their proposed process addresses the issue of how to pack enough food for future missions to the outer reaches of the solar system — or even beyond.
“To deeply explore the solar system, it will be necessary to become less reliant on the resupply tether to Earth,” the researchers said in the study, which was led by Eric Pilles.
Currently, crew on the International Space Station (ISS) rely on resupply missions from Earth, which is costly and logistically complicated. Farming in space, although possible, is also complex. That’s why the researchers suggest a more local source of food: space rocks.
Their solution requires using high heat to break down the organic compounds found in asteroids in oxygen-free environments — a process known as pyrolysis. The resulting hydrocarbons could then be fed to microbes that would consume the organic material and produce biomass of nutritional value to humans, according to the study.
