Food Preparation

Growing food in a closed loop is only half the task. What the compartments produce, both crops and microbial biomass such as the cyanobacterium Spirulina, still has to be harvested, preserved and turned into meals that are safe, nutritious and acceptable to a crew over months or years.

MELiSSA research has approached this in several steps. Early studies characterised the edible and non-edible fractions of candidate crops such as wheat, rice, potato, soybean and lettuce. They showed that crops grown under controlled conditions can differ in composition from field-grown ones, for example with a higher protein content. Work at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona then defined procedures for harvesting, dewatering, conserving and preparing edible biomass for the crew, including ways to assess the quality of the final product.

Spirulina received particular attention. Food specialists explored recipes with and without cooking. They showed that Spirulina can be part of a normal, varied daily diet, and looked at how much preparation time a crew would need. Later work brought the accumulated data on food composition, recipes and dishes together in a MELiSSA food database, laying the groundwork for menus that match what the loop can produce.

Nothing is wasted: the non-edible parts of plants and biomass return to the waste treatment compartment, closing the loop.

Food Preparation

Further reading in the Library