One of the many challenges I strongly feel doesn’t get enough attention when we talk about sending rockets of humans to the moon and Mars, is the question of how are we going to feed these people?
A related ethical question is what is humanity’s responsibility for helping other sapient life spread beyond earth and how should this happen? Putting vegan philosophy aside for a moment, it’s unlikely we’re ever going to transport animals like cows and sheep given the vast resources they need to grow.
Getting a rocket to these locations is by far the easy part. Most of the significantly difficult challenges are things that we can develop now and likely have great value here on Earth too, but we’d rather build rockets first.
So you can imagine how happy I was when I heard the news from Aleph Farms. Earlier this ear we saw 3D printed human tissue in space, and now we’ve seen similar processes produce a 3D printed steak from animal cells!
The article is below. I think this is great news, because making sure thousands of people permanently living in space keep a nutritious diet is no easy feat. It’s extremely expensive to send food from earth, so being able to manufacture food in space is likely one of the most lucrative commercial opportunities for new space companies as we go beyond earth orbit.
Israeli Biotech 3D Prints the First Beef Steak in Space
Hungry astronauts rejoice! Aleph Farms, a company that grows beef steak from animal cells, has grown the first steaks aboard the International Space Station.
The Israeli biotech’s experiment is the first proof that meat can be grown in outer space. Aleph Farms created the meat using a 3D bioprinter developed by the Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions. The experiment has now opened the door to a future where astronauts can grow their own meat on space exploration missions.
“Space is one of the most hostile and remote environments possible without resources available,” Didier Toubia, the CEO of Aleph Farms, told me. “We are showing that we can produce food without the reliance on local land and water resources.”
Read the full article here.
