The kitchen of future astronauts on the Moon is imagined in Toulouse
A few hours later launch of the Artemis-1 mission and the Orion module from Cape Canaveral, which foreshadows the return of man to the Moon, Toulouse has taken a step forward in the development of an “innovative and qualitative on-board power supply”, in the words of Dominique Batani, President of the Grand Marché MIN of Toulouse. It is in this wholesale market, a major player in food in Occitania, that an unprecedented partnership has just been signed between various players in agriculture, agrifood, research and innovation.
In addition to the Grand Marché, this initiative brings together the University of Paris-Saclay, the Purpan engineering school, the Toulouse start-up Orius and Cooking School Mode d’Emploi(s) of Chef Thierry Marx, hosted at MIN. “Entities that were not intended to work together”, as the director of the Grand Marché, Maguelone Pontier, points out. “But the food of tomorrow already represents many challenges and we are a real laboratory for this food of the future. We wanted to go further and today is the first day of this adventure, which should lead us to imagine the next meal by Thomas Pesquet. »
The ambition is clear: to provide future astronauts with quality food, while the next manned flight to the Moon is scheduled for 2024 and should lead to the installation of a manned base. Director of Orbital Systems and Applications at CNES, Caroline Laurent explains: “We have to prepare for life on the Moon, which must be an intermediate base towards Mars in particular. »
By pooling all these skills, the idea is to cover all the steps. “Our students will thus be able to train and our teacher-researchers will contribute their knowledge of varietal selection and growing conditions. We had never done agriculture in space and this will teach us a lot to develop agriculture that is more respectful of the environment on Earth”, indicates Frédéric Violleau, director of research at the engineering school of Purpan.
“We can produce any type of plant in any environment. This is what we do for our main market, cosmetic and pharmaceutical active ingredients. But we have little experience on food plants. This is the purpose of this partnership, so that there is French technology on the Moon”, assures, enthusiastic, Pierre-Hector Oliver, the founder of Orius. The Purpan engineering school supported the company, which emerged from the Toulouse TechTheMoon incubator, in the choice of varieties to cultivate. Its tool for producing and improving plants without chemical inputs, which will have to be adapted to spatialization, will be available to the students of the Cooking School Mode d’Emploi(s).
For Thierry Marx, precisely, this approach is not new, since the starred chef collaborated with Raphaël Haumont, university professor at the University of Paris-Saclay and teacher-researcher in physics and chemistry of materials, to co-found the Center French for culinary innovation. “In my job, we often talk about culinary tradition but there is no conflict between tradition and innovation. To paraphrase Auguste Escoffier, cooking, without ceasing to be an art, will become scientific and will have to submit its formulas to science. Convinced that “the hybridization of brains works”, Thierry Marx will emphasize the taste and the precision of the recipes.