Space Food Technology / Science in Space | World Anvil

Space Food

Food in space is a massive challenge, especially as Humans can spend months, or possibly years, in space. Humans need to eat and food can have a shorter lifespan than the duration of many missions. However, humanity has overcome this great endeavor.  

Food

21st Century & Pre-Colonisation

In the early days of Space Exploration, a lot of time and funding went into the research of Food in Space. Food from Earth was brought onto Spacecraft and Stations in frozen died & vaccumed packaging. This was to lighten and preserve the food for longer missions.
  Eventually discoveries were found that gave humanity the ability to grow food in space using a mixture of hydroponics, environmental chambers and biological 3D Printing. Soon, brands from Earth such as DougEats, developed more palatable and lasting food.   There are many records of early Astronaughts who would complain about the quality of food. Even the popular DougEats had criticism, even though it was a widely used brand of Space Food. It was not until the development of the technology that enabled humanity to grow crops in space when the quality of food some-what improved.  

Space Colonisation Era & Now

As DougEats expanded, so too did other brands. However in the early days of the Space Era, the greatest challenge was not growing food in space, but the preservation of food in space. As soon as Space Farms and the technology to cultivate crops in space stations and ships began to be developed, Food became more accessible.   Nowadays, Food is easily accessible while in Space. With the advanced technology of today, food is produced and consumed in mass. Growing food aboard all kinds of Earth-made Spacecraft was made simpler by the advent of the Gravity Generators.  

Water

As well as food, water was a big problem to solve. Transporting water from Earth was difficult as the amount of water needed to sustain an entire crew was heavy. During the early periods of space travel, Water was mostly transported in dedicated Spaceship tankers. This was an expensive affair, especially for longer missions as they required a greater volume of water. Therefore it was crucial to find ways to produce water in Space.
  In 2112, AquaStar developed the first water producing technology, which was named after the water bearer constellation, Aquarius. At this time, the Aquarius Modulator produced enough water for a while, though it required a lot of energy to run. However, after a few iterations, the Aquarius became more efficient in its task. It is now fitted into most Spacecraft as many consider it to be the best Water Generating technology.

Related Information

Space Farm

Many Space Stations and ships have whole decks dedicated to growing a wide variety of food. There are even whole Station complexes dedicated to the production of Food, known as Space Farms.
 

Gravity Generators


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