What will astronauts eat during long space exploration missions when it is no longer possible to resupply? Bakery yeast, answers a student research team from Concordia University, finalist in the Deep Space Food Challenge. With AstroYeast, their autonomous and sustainable microfarm project, scientists also hope to contribute to food security on Earth.
The AstroYeast Microfarm project is one of four finalists in the Deep Space Food Challenge, a technology competition that embodies the first collaboration of its kind between the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. Earlier this year, the multidisciplinary team of 15 students from Concordia University received $100,000 to continue their research and present it at the final in spring 2024. For three years, they have been working to create a food technology based on edible baker’s yeast.
This is designed to produce the nutrients that crew members will need, such as vitamins A and C, but also flavors such as lemon or vanilla. “Yeast can be eaten directly, transformed into a spread or soup base with water and produce new flavors,” explains Lancia Lefebvre, team member and student in synthetic biology. Dietary diversity is very important in space, because astronauts experience tastes less there. »
Indeed, although astronauts’ menus have evolved greatly since the 1960s, eating in space is a delicate undertaking. Fresh food is rare and must be consumed within a few days of receipt, unless it has been irradiated or heat-treated. Often, dishes are freeze-dried, that is to say dehydrated, and water must be added. Food fatigue — and potential deficiencies — can then occur due to a lack of diversity in textures.
Space microfarmers
At the same time, the engineering component of the project is responsible for building a fully automated bioreactor which will be used to cultivate yeast within the station itself. “We design special tanks filled with a certain liquid to incubate the yeasts in conditions they like, namely a stable and controlled temperature, clean air and nutrients,” explains Felipe Perez, technical and mechanical manager of the project. . It’s like a micro-factory. »
The idea is to set up a system that is as sustainable as possible, since it is very expensive and difficult to send things into space, explains Felipe Perez. Hence the interest in an incubator promoting the food autonomy of astronauts. They place a sample of yeast in the machine, and it takes care of the rest. “The yeast will grow for about two days, and once developed, the system can collect it and treat it with heat to sterilize it,” explains Gabriel Aguiar-Tawil, a student in applied synthetic biology at Concordia, who is leading the component. genetic. Then, “space microfarmers” harvest it and eat it.
The team is part of the CUBICS initiative, which offers post-secondary students the opportunity to design their own minisatellite, CubeSat, and send it into space. In partnership with Concordia’s Spacecraft division, it is building an onboard system to test its yeasts in space conditions and collect valuable data. “Generally speaking, one of the big challenges is respecting space constraints,” explains Lancia Lefebvre.
And on Earth?
AstroYeast technology is not only interesting for life in space. “We can envisage the system being used by local communities, especially the most isolated, so that they can sustainably produce nutrients essential to human health,” says M.me Lefebvre. Communities in Northern Canada, for example, face food challenges imposed by unpredictable weather conditions.
“Working in the field of space exploration is very stimulating, it brings us back to big questions, namely why we exist today, how our environment works,” says the student-researcher enthusiastically. And the conditions and constraints of space also remind us how precious and wonderful life on Earth is. »
The Deep Space Food Challenge has three more finalists. The Canada GOOSE project at the University of Guelph offers a plant growth chamber to grow fruits, vegetables and mushrooms with electricity and water supply. A group from McGill University will present a system for breeding, collecting and processing locusts. Finally, Ecoation is working on new technology with the potential to provide more than 500 kg of nutrient-dense foods per year, including a meat substitute called “ bacon spatial”.