We have been asking us for years, we will eat in space. Now we know that at least miso

The space has become in recent years a more and more open place, not only reserved for a handful of trained professionals but also to anyone who can afford one of the nothing cheap passages that can lead one to cross the last border or even put it into orbit.

Now, if we want to continue taking more and more people to space, solve The question of food It will be a key step.

Miso in space. A group of researchers Miso has managed to ferment In a mission to the International Space Station (ISS), demonstrating that the food fermentation process is possible in environments like this. The experiment is a small step towards improving habitability conditions in space trips.

From koji to miso. The miso It is a popular seasoning in Japanese cuisine. It is prepared from fermented soy, barley or rice grains, and salt. Soy fermentation is performed through a Koji fungus culture (Aspergillus oryzae), a fungus also used in the elaboration of the Sake.

The team wanted to verify if this fermentation was possible in orbit, since microgravity conditions or cosmic radiation could affect the growth capacity of microbes in food. To check it, they sent a sample to low terrestrial orbit, to the ISS, For 30 days. As a control, they also fermented samples of the same lot on the mainland, at the MIT headquarters (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and at the Technical University of Denmark.

Fermantado. The experiment was successful. When the sample came to Earth, the team studied the state of microbial communities, aromatic compounds and sensitive properties. They detected, yes, some changes.

“Fermentation (in the ISS) illustrates how a living system on the microbial scale can prosper through the diversity of its microbial community, emphasizing the potential of life to exist in space,” stood out in a press release Maggie Coblentz, who collided the study.

Nuts. Trying things in a laboratory is usually a bad idea, but this time the team should also verify the taste of this space miso. They first verified that the orbital recipe contained the same aromatic compounds and amino acid profiles similar to terrestrial miso.

Those who tested the space miso explained that the taste was good and similar to that associated with this product. They noticed that, a greater flavor of nuts and more toasted. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine iscience.

Expanding the menu. The experiment can be used to improve access to new flavors among people traveling to space. Today the foods that can be consumed in space are limited by factors such as the amount of water that we can lead to the space or product development requirements.

The possibility of fermenting products in orbit will expand The limits What we can eat in space (e Even on other planets). And it is not only about the possibility of introducing new flavors: fermentation is a process that humanity has taken advantage of during millennia to preserve food and increase its useful life through transformation.

Not so sterile. As Explain COBLENTZalthough we tend to see ISS as an aseptic and sterile environment, the experiment also demonstrates that microbial life is possible in these environments. This also implies bioethical issues about the fact that, if humanity ever becomes an interplanetary species, it will not do it alone but accompanied by both plants and infinity of microorganisms that can settle in these extraterrestrial environments.

In Xataka | The food knows very different in space. The reason is more intriguing than it seems: confinement

Image | Maggie Coblentz / POT