Food on the Moon can be imagined from Toulouse
A starred chef, researchers and a start-up have signed a partnership in Toulouse to imagine together what could be, in a few years, food on the Moon. Vertical vegetable gardens, culture, recipes…
UN futuristic project saw the light of day on November 16, following the signing of a partnership MIN of Toulouse between thePurpan engineering schoolstarred chef Thierry Marx, molecular cuisine specialist Raphaël Haumont and a very young start-up named Oriusdeployed in the Pink City.
All met in Toulouse to seal an agreement aimed at imagining, together, what could be food on the moon In the coming years. From growing plants to finding nutritious and appetizing dishes… The details.
A vegetable garden on the moon
To feed on the Moon, you must first know how to farm. Because more than 300,000 kilometers from Earth, too, we are looking for local food. This is the goal of Orius. A start-up supported for a year by the CNES of Toulouse within theTech the Moon incubator.
The invention of Orius is the biomebox. A kind of “wine cellar” more than two meters high and almost three meters wide in which grow, on four or five floors, all kinds of fruits, vegetables, plants and herbs.
These indoor vegetable gardens are already functioning on Earth for the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. But they could also, in the near future, be installed on boarda base deployed on the South Pole of the Moonin order to “produce plants, in a controlled environment and without pesticides, which would go to astronauts” to refuel when they make a long journey in space, in particular in the direction of Mars”, evokes Alexis Paillet, head of the space program at CNES in Toulouse.
How do biomeboxes work?
“Inside each biomebox, we can control all the parameters necessary for plant growth, namely: humidity, temperature, light and air renewal. This allows us to script programmer – like “a lever of the sun in a hot country” – who are best able to boost development of cultures,” says Paul-Hector Olivier, founder of Orius.
To this are obviously added water and fertilizer, “in very small doses. Especially at water level, since we recover 90% thanks to the transpiration of plants, which allows us not to waste resources”, he adds.
Replace freeze-dried food
For now, astronauts who go on a mission in space are not always spoiled. Most of their dishes are freeze-dried and don’t look very appetizing. This is where Thierry Marx, signatory of the partnership concluded at the MIN of Toulouse, comes in. His mission consisted, with Raphaël Haumont, in imagine recipes that astronauts could easily replicate on the Moonwith biomebox ingredients.
“Astronauts do not benefit from a great diversity in their diet. And if we impose the same meals on them every day, they lose the desire to eat. Within the framework of our partnership, the objective is to imagine different recipes which, on the one hand, will provide professionals with the necessary nutrients to their survival, and on the other hand, enough fun to promote their well-being in space”, assures Alexis Paillet.
What fruits, vegetables or aromatics could grow on the Moon?
“We can grow all kinds of plants in the biomeboxes. But on the Moon, every square meter is expensive. This is why it is essential to select the most “profitable” types of fruits, vegetables or herbs. In other words, plants that grow quickly and in large quantities, in a minimum of space”, explains Paul-Hector Olivier. Students from the Purpan engineering school and producers from the MIN in Toulouse will bring their expertise in the agricultural field to the start-up.
Researchers are particularly interested in the leafy vegetable family, all parts of which are edible and contain many vitamins. “In addition, these plants do not take up a lot of space to grow. For minuza cabbage, for example, the biomeboxes have a production capacity of 270 kilograms per square meter per year, i.e. one tonne per machine. Whereas in a traditional greenhouse, the production is ten kilograms per square meter per year”, comments Paul-Hector Olivier.
How to power the biomeboxes?
How can you cook on the Moon? What do we cook food with? How would the biomeboxes be powered? And the water, where would it come from? These questions are not adapted from the partnership signed at the Toulouse MIN, but CNES research carried out in parallel, as part of the “Spaceship” program, for which Alexis Paillet is responsible.
“We are studying different scenarios. The base – and therefore the biomeboxes – could work thanks to solar panels since it is dark only five days a month in the south pole of the Moon. We can also use low temperature batteries, or even regenerative hydrogen batteries. The goal remains to consume as little as possible and designers of low-energy equipment”, notes Alexis Paillet. This is also the case for water resources. These could be taken directly from the blocks of ice contained on the Moon. Then recycled, as in the International Space Station (ISS) where “90% of the water is reused by the astronauts”, adds the researcher.
Take the direction of Mars, with a stopover on the Moon
The plan to install a base on the Moon is carried by several countries in the world, such as the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia and France. All are united in international cooperation, with the same objective: to go to Mars within 25 years.
“If France wants to hope one day to send an astronaut to the Moon within this base, or on a mission to Mars, it must therefore show that she participates in the international cooperation », specifies Alexis Paillet. One of the stones in this building: it is precisely food.
But beware, France is not the only one trying to imagine what food will be like on the Moon. “The United States and Canada are also considering it. Within international cooperation, we do research together, but we are also in competition to find the most suitable technology for the project”, warns Alexis Paillet. One of the technologies selected to go to the Moon could thus be the biomebox.