Imperial scientists are looking ahead to when human space missions will take us to other planets in or beyond the Solar System.
Weighty supplies like food, water, and fuel add to the cost and scale of the flight, and feeding each astronaut is estimated to cost around £20,000 per day. One potential solution is to take microbes called yeasts onboard, which can be engineered to produce such supplies through precision fermentation.
“We’re excited that this project makes use of academic and industry expertise in physics, engineering, biotech and space science – converging on this challenge.”
Dr Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Department of Bioengineering
Dr Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro from Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering and his collaborators at Cranfield University and companies Frontier Space and ATMOS Space Cargo have now launched a miniature laboratory into Earth orbit to find out whether such yeasts can produce food, pharmaceuticals, fuel and bioplastics in the microgravity of space.
This partnership successfully launched a fully automated miniature microbe laboratory aboard Europe’s first commercial returnable spacecraft, Phoenix, via SpaceX on Monday 21 April at 20:48 ET (Tuesday 22 April at 01.48 BST).
Watch the launch (opens external site in a new window)
. . .