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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

space

SpaceX is Flying Coffee and Hemp Plants into Outer Space

Will coffee beans grown in the endless expanse of outer space taste any different? We’ll soon find out.

Colorado-based agricultural company Front Range Biosciences is partnering with SpaceCells USA Inc. and BioServe Space Technologies to send plant tissue culture from coffee and hemp up into Outer Space next year. The 480 samples will be packed aboard a March 2020 SpaceX cargo flight and remain in space for 30 days.

According to a press release, the purpose of this inter-space journey is to see how the cultures will (or won’t) mutate in zero-gravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Scientists will track whether any mutations will stick once the plants are brought back down to earth.

This will be one of the first times that a company gathers data on the effects of space travel on hemp and coffee cell cultures. Through the experiment, Front Range Biosciences hopes to learn more about how plants can adapt to climate change.

Coffee especially is a temperamental crop and threatened by more extreme weather conditions, like rising temperatures and drought, caused by climate change. To combat that companies are experimenting with new techniques to create more resistant coffee crops, from CRISPR gene editing to, apparently, space mutations.

The Colorado company may be the first to do concrete data on hemp and coffee plants in outer space, but Front Range Biosciences is far from the first company to launch food into zero-gravity conditions. Earlier this year Dubai startup Space Roasters claimed it would create optimal java by roasting beans in space, but now its website is an unrelated roasting blog, so I’m guessing that… didn’t work out. Japan’s Space Food X has an entire initiative figuring out how to feed people in zero gravity. And just last month a dozen bottles of Bordeaux were sent to the ISS for twelve months of intergalactic aging.

It’s still early days in the field of space agricultural experimentation, and Front Range Biosciences is just beginning its intergalactic plant tissue tests. But I for one can’t wait to sample a cup of joe made from interstellar beans. Far out.

Meet Space Food X, Japan’s New Initiative to Feed People in Space

With all the challenges earth faces in the form of global warming, resource constraints and geopolitical unrest, many among us are already working on technology to get humanity into space for the long haul.

And sure, while we’re still working out how to get a bunch of us up into space permanently, perhaps the biggest puzzle we need to solve for long-term space colonization is figuring out how we’ll feed ourselves. And while it’d be nice to just store a bunch of Funyuns and Tang for those multiyear trips up to the nearest moon base or space station, the reality is long-term space survival will require self-sustaining, circular food systems that can scale and operate over decades.

Luckily for us, Japan is here for it in the form of a new initiative called Space Food X, a program to develop new food technologies and systems to solve the challenges of food production in space.

At the center of this new initiative is a consortium of 30 different organizations from Japan comprised of a variety of technology and food companies, universities, investment firms and researchers. The group of 30 is led by three founding members: JAXA (Japan’s space agency, the equivalent of US’s NASA), RealTech Fund (a Japanese venture fund) and SigmaXYZ, a consulting firm and organization.

(As both disclosure and humble-brag, I have to note that SigmaXYZ is also a partner with our company, as we co-produce Japan’s leading foodtech event in the Smart Kitchen Summit Japan. In fact, the Space Food X Deputy Director is Tanaka “Hiro” Hirotaka, one of the chairs for SKS Japan. And yes, you can bet I will get Hiro to talk space food at SKS in Seattle).

You can see all the companies participating in Space Food X below:

What will Space Food X be working on? From the (translated) website:

In order to live for a long time on the moon or Mars, various techniques and wisdom are required, such as techniques for efficiently producing food with less resources locally. In addition, the problem of food is a common issue even on the earth where the population increases. We at Space Food X combine the power of superior technology, business and culture from Japan to solve the food problem that is a common problem of the universe and the earth.

The announcement points to a variety of recent technology and food science developments in the areas of cellular meat, algae and ‘plant factories’ that will be core to their new efforts to develop long term solutions, as well advancements in robotics, AI and 3D food printing.

From the (translated) release:

By making the best use of these excellent technologies and food culture, it is possible to construct closed material circulation systems, food production systems, food supply services, etc. with a high degree of superiority in space life. Products and services are considered to be able to solve the food problem that is a common issue in the universe and the earth.

The new group has a phased approach that will ultimately move towards fully sustainable space based food systems. The five phases which will take place over a twenty year time period culminating in 2040. This future is visualized in the image below. Just look at those happy space residents sitting around a table, laughing, enjoying their space food!:

Of course, Japan isn’t alone in focusing on developing new food technologies to feed people in space. NASA and the European Space Agency as well as Russia and China’s space agencies are all working on developing long-term space food solutions. That said, none of the other efforts will produce teleported sushi (Open Meals, the company behind this idea – is a part of Spacefood X), so they’re all instantly at a serious disadvantage.

Stay tuned for more information on this effort (and for an upcoming presentation on the topic at SKS North America).

This Company Wants to Roast Coffee Beans in Space — For Real

If you think you go to great heights to find the best coffee, you’re about to be one-upped. Space Roasters founders Anders Cavallini and Hatem Alkhafaji decided that in order to achieve perfectly roasted beans, there was only one thing to do: head to outer space.

Naturally.

Here’s how it will supposedly work: According to the Guardian, the spacecraft — dubbed the Coffee Roasting Capsule — will launch from Earth filled with 300 kg green coffee beans, reaching a height of about 200km (124 mi). Upon the 20-minute trip back to Earth, the beans will roast in the heat generated by the reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Since the capsule will be zero-gravity, the beans will be free-floating, meaning that they’ll get a 360-degree even roast.

Photo: Space Roasters website.

Once the device returns to earth, Space Roasters plans to sell the first-ever space-roasted coffee in Dubai, where the company is based (though the website’s contact page lists their location as San Diego, California).

The concept may be ludicrous, but the Space Roasters founders just might have the background to make it happen. Both Cavallini and Alkhafaji have educations in Space Science, and Cavallini has worked at NASA and Orbital and has “over 5 years of experience roasting, brewing, and tasting coffee from around the world.”

But there’s at least one coffee roasting red flag. The Space Roasters team expects temperatures inside the capsule to be around 200°C (392°F) during re-entry. I won’t get too deep into coffee roasting science here, but that’s a pretty low temperature — meaning that the coffee will likely have a very, very light roast. This is just another sign that this stunt is clearly less about creating the perfect cup of joe and more about creating a public spectacle.

Forgive the skepticism. As an ex-specialty coffee barista and forever coffee snob, I’ve seen people go to great heights to achieve the perfect coffee roast. Just not heights as great as this. And honestly, coffee roasted the traditional way is pretty dang great. While theoretically roasting beans in zero gravity would give a more consistent, all-around roast, there’s no way it will taste good enough to justify what is presumably an out-of-this-world pricetag (the company has yet to disclose any pricing details).

In the Guardian interview, the Space Roasters founders said that they were in discussions with private rocket companies like Rocket Lab and Blue Origins to find a launch partner. They’re hoping to launch the capsule as early as next year.

If you’re interested in getting in on this cosmic coffee, the Space Roaster’s website has a countdown clock for a pre-sale campaign which will open in a few weeks. Be sure to let us know if you suddenly get alien superpowers after sipping on a space latte.

Scientists in Antarctica Grow Food Without Soil or Sunlight — Get Ready, Mars

Astronauts, you had better like salad.

AP News reported last week that a team of scientists at Germany’s Neumayer Station III in Antarctica had successfully grown their first crop of produce without any soil, sunlight, or pesticides. The goal of the project was to explore food growing methods for use on outer space missions.

In total the researchers harvested eight pounds of salad greens, including swiss chard, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes — enough for quite the veg-heavy feast. And this crop just the beginning. The German Aerospace Center said last Thursday that its scientists hope to harvest up to 11 pounds of produce per week by May.

The vegetables were grown inside a shipping container, which arrived in the Antarctic in January of 2018. The plants are grown through aeroponics, a method of cultivation that doesn’t require soil or sunlight. Instead, plants receive nutrients via a liquid (made of nutrient solution and filtered water piped into the greenhouse) sprayed onto their roots, and bask in LED lights in air that’s enriched with CO2. The growing system and greenhouse are part of the “Eden ISS” project, in association with the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Aeroponic farming is beginning to enter the home and specialty food markets, thanks to startups like Grove and AeroFarms. Since they rely on aeroponic mists and LED lights instead of sunlight and soil, these growing systems can support produce throughout the entire year, and in variable weather conditions. Including, apparently, the -20 °C (-4 °F) chill of Antarctica.

The Eden greenhouse. Photo: DLR via Flickr

This successful first harvest is a boost for scientists researching ways to grow produce on interplanetary missions where astronauts would be confined to tight quarters for several years. NASA already grew lettuce on the International Space Station earlier this year, but there are only so many salads you can eat before monotony sets in. This update from Antarctica shows that astronauts could replicate this growing system in space and cultivate a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in their ships  — and possibly, someday, even on Mars or the Moon.

NASA estimates that four crew members would need 24,000 pounds of food to sustain themselves on a three-year journey to Mars. Which can get very heavy and take up a lot of space. NASA is already working on light, durable packaging for interplanetary missions, but with a viable aeroponic system, they might not have to pack quite so much. Astronauts could grow at least a portion of their food on their ship, which would lighten the load (since there’s no soil required) and also give them access to fresh produce. Because freeze-dried ice cream must get old after a while.

This isn’t the only technology that might give astronauts more culinary options in space. The Japanese company Open Meals is working towards teleporting food through digitization and connected 3D bioprinters. If they reach their goal, astronauts could theoretically be snacking on tuna nigiri (or whatever else tickled their fancy) while orbiting the red planet. At least for now, though, they’ll have to settle for salad. Lots and lots of salad.

Teleported Sushi Has Big Implications for Digital Food

When I first heard internet murmurings that a company had figured out a way to teleport sushi, I immediately thought of one of my favorite childhood films: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (The old version, not the new one with creepy Johnny Depp.)

Near the end of the movie, Wonka gives his diminishing troupe of children a tour of the factory’s teleporting technology, which has the power to “beam” you a chocolate bar through your T.V. As a chocolate lover and a T.V. lover, I was smitten. But I assumed that this technology would probably never become a reality, at least outside of Wonka.

How happy I am to be wrong!

A Japanese company called Open Meals premiered their “sushi teleportation” technology at SXSW2018, conducting what they call “the world’s first food data transmission.” In the demonstration, sushi that was designed in Tokyo was printed, via Open Meals’ Pixel Food Printer, in Austin, TX.

Their sushi currently prints in 5-millimeter blocks, giving the results a pixellated look straight out of an 80’s video game. However, they hope to reduce the size to 1-millimeter blocks, which would give the food a more organic, realistic appearance.

This demonstration was just the beginning of Open Meals’ plan to transform the way that food is created and transported. Eventually, Open Meals hopes to be able to transmit ingredients and whole dishes, using data and something that their website calls “Social Food Network Services.” They want to usher in what they dub the “fifth food revolution,” whose hallmarks are the “digitalization, transmission, and re-generation of food.”

Open Meals’ Pixel Food Printer isn’t the only 3D food printer out there; there’s also the Foodini and Dovetailed, and scientists at Carnegie Mellon recently came up with a way to DIY a 3D bioprinter. But its approach is unique. Instead of using food paste in a canister, sugar, or liquid as its medium, their machine (patent pending) uses data to set exact specifications to mimic the nutrients, color, texture, and flavor of a specific food, which it then adds to a gel pixel. The robotic arm “prints” this customized gel into a miniature 3D cube, which it stacks to reproduce the appearance of the food its replicating.

Open Meals’ Pixel Food Printer

The sushi demonstration was certainly flashy, but in my opinion the real potential for Open Meals’ vision lies in its Food Base project.

Their digital food platform allows users to search, upload, download, and share data, such as taste, texture, nutrient composition, and color/shape, for specific ingredients or dishes. They can then send that specific food’s data profile up to their connected Pixel Food Printer, which will recreate it.

Open Meals hopes to source data from Michelin-star restaurants, home cooks, television shows, and even food-themed art to populate its database.

Obviously we have a long way to go before we reach a time when digitized, teleported food is feasible on a large scale. You would never mistake Open Meals’ “transported” sushi for the real thing, and apparently the taste was nowhere near bluefin tuna or prawn.

But the implications of what they’re doing is huge, way beyond just a cool-looking trick for SXSW. OpenMeals wants to digitize food like Apple and others digitized music, democratizing it — at least for those who can afford its Pixel Food Printer. (The machine is currently a prototype, but if mass marketed will no doubt fetch a pretty penny.)

Open Meals’ digital food database.

Extrapolating from the claims on Open Meals’ website, a future with digitized, printable food could:

  • Allow for carefully calibrated meals for people with illnesses like diabetes, or athletes with restrictive diets. This could become especially popular as demand for personalized diets is on the rise.
  • Provide on-demand, nutritious food to disaster areas or combat zones where farming infrastructure is weak. That is, assuming the printed food and its corresponding 3D bioprinters would ever be affordable enough for disaster relief organizations to purchase in bulk.
  • Preserve traditional dishes, from cultural hallmarks to mom’s beef stroganoff recipe. Because we all know how hard it is to make food exactly like mom does.
  • Replicate elaborate dishes from cooking shows, so you can eat along with the T.V. (Way better than Smell-O-Vision.)
  • Help lab-grown meat mimic the texture of bluefin tuna or ribeye steak.
  • Be beamed into space so that astronauts can enjoy a wide variety of meals without having to pack a lot of heavy food. This is especially intriguing as NASA gears up for the 2030 mission to Mars. 

Open Meals hasn’t given a timeline for their goals to digitize the future of food. Until they do, I’ll just have to keep dreaming of the taste of a teleported chocolate bar.