When Eric Philips boards SpaceX’s Dragon capsule subsequent month, he’ll carry an sudden natural payload: oyster mushrooms. One in all his aspect quests is to domesticate the first-ever crop of mushrooms in area. And this might mark a brand new chapter for sustainable astronaut vitamin.
Led by Australian firm FOODiQ World, the experiment — dubbed Mission MushVroom — goals to show that oyster mushrooms can flourish in microgravity. It’s a primary step towards rising this type of nutrient-rich meals on future lunar bases or Mars colonies.
“They double in dimension day-after-day,” Dr. Flávia Fayet-Moore, the chief govt of Australian firm FOODiQ World, informed The Guardian, explaining the advantages of those mushrooms. “They don’t want numerous inputs: they don’t want any particular fertilisers, they don’t want numerous water.”
The Good Area Crop
Mushrooms are a dietary powerhouse. They naturally comprise vitamin D, potassium, selenium, and copper — vitamins astronauts sometimes get hold of from quite a lot of meals like nuts, seeds, and greens. NASA considers them a great “develop, decide, and eat” crop, nearly good in environments the place processing meals is impractical.
This isn’t the primary fungi experiment in area. Final yr, researchers from Australia’s Swinburne College despatched fungal root-like buildings, known as mycelia, to the Worldwide Area Station. However restricted area prevented precise mushrooms — the fruiting our bodies — from forming. The brand new mission, Fram2, set to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, would be the first to develop the fruiting our bodies of a fungus.
Phillips, an skilled polar explorer, is tasked with documenting the mushrooms’ development, waiting for indicators of contamination, and assessing their situation. As soon as again on Earth, the mushrooms will endure detailed evaluation to grasp how microgravity influenced their dietary worth and general improvement.
Sustainable Meals for Far-off Worlds
As NASA plans longer journeys, creating dependable, nutritious meals sources on website is a significant benefit. Cargo quantity is at a premium in area and the farther out you’re from Earth, the price grows exponentially. Having the ability to develop from one thing as small as fungi spores can be an enormous benefit. Mushrooms have a quick development cycle of round 30 days in comparison with the 100 days wanted for some vegetation.
“The explanation why we’re researching that is to actually create a sustainable, nutritious, and scrumptious meals provide for the exploration missions to the Moon and Mars,” Dr. Fayet-Moore informed ABC.
However understanding how fungi behave in area additionally has implications again on Earth. Professor Jenny Mortimer from the College of Adelaide believes these experiments might assist terrestrial agriculture. Actually, it would educate us a factor or two about farming underneath harsh situations.
“Mushrooms are a very essential a part of enthusiastic about that entire round system of how we feed and help individuals long run,” Mortimer stated.
The Fram2 mission isn’t alone in exploring how vegetation and fungi fare past Earth’s environment. Researchers worldwide are making ready related missions, equivalent to sending duckweed and different plant species to the Moon in NASA’s Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027.
Collectively, these experiments will assist scientists reply essential questions: Can vegetation thrive within the hostile lunar and Martian environments? How do radiation, microgravity, and excessive situations have an effect on development? And will the insights we acquire from these missions assist us enhance farming again dwelling?
For now, all eyes are on the Fram2 mission. If the mushrooms thrive, Philips and his crew will return with a small however important harvest — one that would assist feed the subsequent technology of area explorers.
