After plants, European Space Agency's new project to grow meat in space for astronauts

An abundance of food for astronauts venturing on long-duration space missions would be utterly important to keep the wheels of planetary exploration moving. While scientists have already grown plants in space for this purpose, they are levelling up by attempting to grow cultured meat to keep the astronauts well fed. Experts from the European Space Agency (ESA) are supporting researchers for the same which they say would ensure food security in space and would be a game-changer for the environment, human health and animal welfare.

ESA looks to develop new approach to astronaut nutrition 

ESA engineer Paolo Corradi, who proposed the idea of feeding astronauts with cultured meat in space says that a large amount of long-shelf-life food would be needed if astronauts venture out into space today. According to Corradi, this entails a risk of food degradation which would ultimately limit the degree of self-sustainability and resilience of the mission. 

"If we want to succeed in long-term human exploration far from Earth, we need to rethink our current approach to astronaut nutrition and provide the means to efficiently produce food on board, possibly integrated within the regenerative life support system", Corradi's colleague Christel Paille said.

ESA engineer Corradi explains how to produce cultured meat

The ESA engineer, who is overseeing the project, listed three steps explaining how the two teams involved would proceed to bring the cultured meat idea to reality. Corradi said that the first step is analysing and comparing the nutritional value and potential benefits of cultured meat products with those of protein food alternatives used in space. Scientists would then list requirements for growing meat in space based on the nutritional guidelines for astronauts and human spaceflight missions in the future. 

It is the second stage when the ESA steps in. Experts from the European agency would help Corradi's team in astronaut nutrition and human spaceflight through cooperation between different ESA groups and experts. The teams would then present their preliminary design for a cultured meat production system for space applications. "They will compare the system with other potential onboard systems for protein food production, and with the current approach which involves food supplies being transported from Earth", Corradi said. 

Interestingly, the experts involved in the project believe that if the idea is successful, it could make conventional meat a thing of the past as the technology could help grow cultured meat more efficiently on Earth.

Image: Twitter/@ESA