It tastes like chicken
Asteroid Buffet
Deep space travelers could potentially eat food produced from a single carbon-rich asteroid for 600 years, according to a new analysis released yesterday. The method could enable spacefarers to become less dependent on Earth-based supply chains, the current source of food for astronauts.
To determine the potential amount of food an asteroid could offer, researchers modeled the biochemical makeup of the 85 million-ton asteroid Bennu and found between 5,500 to 175,000 tons would be required to feed an astronaut per year.
The research is based on defense-funded experiments attempting to convert hard plastics—like those used as containers for military rations—into human-edible food via pyrolysis, an oxygenless heating technique (how it works). The process first breaks down the plastic into an oil that is then turned into edible biomass as microbial bacteria consume it. A separate study demonstrated bacteria successfully consumed carbons from a meteorite
(watch more).
Learn more about what's on the menu in space
here.
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