Microbes in Orbit: Is Space Bacteria the Future of Astronaut Food?
There are not many organisms that have the ability to live in space. Fortunately for future astronauts, the Anabaena bacterium is one of them.
One of the largest limitations to living in Space is food, or the lack thereof. Currently, astronauts are forced to bring their food aboard their shuttle when they travel to space. Because the International Space Station has no freezer or refrigerator, the food they bring with them has to be pre-cooked and freeze dried. For longer durations however, this practice is unsustainable as the astronauts’ food will constantly have to be replenished through refuel missions, an expensive process. And for ambitious missions like the journey to Mars, it would be near impossible to pack enough food for the 260 day journey.
One of the proposed solutions for the problem is to grow food aboard the spaceships astronauts take into space. However, in space plant roots grow out instead of down, and water and other nutrients plants need float instead of mixing in the soil. In addition, growing plants in space requires carrying heavy containers of soil aboard, a problem that will force engineers to compromise on fuel or other equipment.
A German team has proposed a different solution. They aim to use a genetically modified Anabaena bacteria that excretes the sugar it creates to feed other microbes, thus creating a self-sustaining ecosystem. These other bacteria can then be used to grow food, create drugs and antibiotics, and even fuel the ship.
The team plans to test the bacteria’s space productivity capabilities later this year via satellite. Because the satellite will not be returning to Earth, a second bacteria known as Bacillus subtilis will be placed onboard as well. The Bacillus subtilis turns red when exposed to sugar, and thus the satellites sensors will beam back the results of the experiment to scientists on the ground.
The Anabaena bacteria is still in the early stages of testing and the experiment is currently a proof of concept. However, the expedition to Mars will need to be as self-sustaining as possible, and the experiment’s success will have many implications and bring us one step closer to the possibility of a human on mars.
