Page 11 - Sequence 2020-22

Biotechnology: The Solution For Nutrition In Space

Since the dawn of our species, mankind’s search for new homes and a deeper understanding of our
environment has led to the constant exploration of the world beyond our known boundaries. The discovery
of new habitats, ecosystems, culturally diverse communities and eventually islands and continents spurred
on explorers to navigate through uncharted lands and resulted in the globalized society that we live in
today. As mankind has now set it’s sights on the aptly named “final frontier” of outer space, one of the
primary dilemmas that scientists aim to address is a predicament that all of the explorers of the past faced
and overcame through their own methods; a supply of palatable and nutritious food.

The environment aboard space vessels, such as the International Space Station, places additional stress on
the bodies of astronauts. The combination of reduced appetite, microgravity exposure, electrolyte and
fluid imbalances, menu fatigue, metabolic stress, limited mobility, gastrointestinal microflora changes and
long term radiation exposure lead to undesirable physiological changes that are detrimental to the
astronauts' well being. The production of on demand food and access to a wider range of fresh ingredients

is being looked into as a method of resisting the deleterious effects of outer space that are inimical to the
progress of space exploration.

While current space travel menu’s consist of preserved food stories and dehydrated food supplies, long
term space travel and colonization would require a source of fresh food in space itself. The integration of
various scientific disciplines has led to recent scientific advances in the field of alternative food sources
that makes the possibility of colonizing celestial bodies more possible than ever before. Experiments
conducted aboard the International Space Station due to a partnership between Aleph farms and the 3-D
Bioprinting Solutions Russian laboratory proved to the world that the concept of generating “slaughter
free meat” was a very real possibility. Bioprinters are currently being tested for their potential to generate
human organs from cultured human tissues. The utilization of harvested animal cells to create muscle
tissue as a food source aboard the ISS demonstrated the future prospects of such technology being
employed as a method of providing animal protein without the restrictive requirements of water and land
resources that are involved in the rearing of earthbound livestock.

Alternative agricultural methods for the cultivation of vegetables in environments that are not conducive
to the growth of traditional crops are being researched by every space agency in a bid to understand how
plants react to extra terrestrial stresses and the potential methods of bypassing them. Professor Richard
Barker of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has collaborated with NASA to study the behavior of plants

in space and identified the genes activated in response to heat and flooding. Genetic engineering
experiments on Arabidopsis thaliana to confer resistance to saline and drought conditions are a precursor
for future modifications to leafy vegetables like bok choy, Chinese cabbage and lettuce. The exploitation of
single cell proteins as a food source is a trending field in food biotechnology and the ESA has had success
with their trial runs of growing algae like Spirulina. Hydroponics and soil independent techniques as well
as plant tissue culture methods are being looked into for the proliferation of vegetation among habitation
modules on planets like Mars or on the Moon.

Biotechnological research for a sustainable and nutrient dense food supply will continue to advance well
into the future as we head into an age where man heads to infinity and beyond.

Mr. Gavin Anthony Menezes
Menezes
(T.Y.BSc 2021-22) 4