Will Asteroids Be The Next Food For Astronauts? Here's The Answer

Consider a future where astronauts embark on a mission to Mars or further, but with no cumbersome greenhouses full of soil and no packets of dehydrated meals. Instead, they eat something even weirder: biomass grown from asteroids. You read correctly. Asteroids may soon become one day the sources of nourishment for interplanetary travelers.

According to a report in The International Journal of Astrobiology, scientists are actually considering the rather bold concept of converting the materials found on asteroids into food, or at least something that vaguely resembles it. Now, before your mind starts running rampant with images of chomping on asteroid gravel, let's get one thing straight one is talking about actually eating rocks, and this idea is a little bit more sophisticated than that.

What the researchers are proposing, in effect, is a cosmic form of recycling: The asteroids could be broken down-most, especially the carbon-rich ones. Through a series of combined chemical and physical processes. Once reduced to their essential compounds, these would be fed to special bacteria. These industrious microbes, in turn, would transform the asteroid-derived material into biomass-an edible, nutrient-rich substance. Think of it as the ultimate space-age fermentation process.

It's not as far-fetched as it sounds. The idea borrows from an earlier U.S. Department of Defense project, which worked on a similar technology breaking down plastic containers, such as those used for military rations, and converting them into something not gourmet, perhaps, but at least non-toxic. In that project, the plastic was decomposed into gas and oil, and fed to bacteria. The bacteria in turn produced biomass, consumable.

Asteroids, particularly those of the type Bennu represents, are believed to harbour carbon compounds-molecules that are the essential building blocks for life as we currently understand it. With the right technological sorcery, it is conceivable that astronauts may be able to mine such resources and grow their own food supplies independent of Earth-based supply chains.

Of course, this idea is still very much in the realm of speculation. Joshua Pearce, an engineering professor at Ontario's Western University and one of the study authors, has even promised to take the first bite of asteroid biomass should the project progress. His joke aside, there are serious scientific challenges ahead. First and foremost, the research team must work out whether the biomass could safely be consumed. One might say that the very last thing anyone wants is for toxic bacteria in space to lay astronauts low.

Not to mention the little issue of how to mine asteroids in the first place idea still largely stuck in science fiction. NASA and other space agencies have, of course, worked on the exploration of asteroids can be seen by the study of Bennu-but this is something that will take technological advances both in mining and in bioreactor systems if they are going to become sources of food.

This research underlines to what extent humanity is going into the deep in search of life. This might reflect that classic food growth or storage for longer journeys may just be unsuitable for future missions to Mars or beyond. Resources would be at an all-time low, and asteroid-sourced nutrition serves as a very creative, though unconventional, solution.

Well, while the notion of turning space rocks into dinner is perhaps still in its infancy, it's a salivating vision of how science continues to push the bounds of what is possible in the quest for sustainable life beyond Earth. One thing is certain: the future of space travel might well taste, out of this world.
Whether or not it will require a dash of salt-who can say?