To deeply explore the solar system, it will be necessary to become less reliant on the resupply tether to Earth. An approach explored in this study is to convert hydrocarbons in asteroids to human edible food. After comparing the experimental pyrolysis breakdown products, which were able to be converted to biomass using a consortia, it was hypothesized that equivalent chemicals found on asteroids could also be converted to biomass with the same nutritional content as the pyrolyzed products. This study is a mathematical exercise that explores the potential food yield that could be produced from these methodologies. This study uses the abundance of aliphatic hydrocarbons in the Murchison meteorite (>35 ppm) as a baseline for the calculations, representing the minimum amount of organic matter that could theoretically be attributed to biomass production. Calculations for the total carbon in solvent-insoluble organic matter (IOM) represent the maximum amount of organic matter that could theoretically be attributed to food production. These two values will provide a range of realistic yields to determine how much food could theoretically be extractable from an asteroid. The results of this study found that if only the aliphatic hydrocarbons can be converted into biomass (minimum scenario) the resulting mass of edible biomass extractable from asteroid Bennu ranges from 5.070 × 107 g to 2.390 × 108 g. If the biomass extraction process, however, is more efficient, and all IOM is converted into edible biomass (maximum scenario), then the mass of edible biomass extractable from asteroid Bennu ranges from 1.391 × 109 g to 6.556 × 109 g. This would provide between 5.762 × 108 and 1.581 × 1010 calories that is enough to support between 600 and 17 000 astronaut life years. The asteroid mass needed to support one astronaut for one year is between 160 000 metric tons and 5000 metric tons. Based on these results, this approach of using carbon in asteroids to provide a distributed food source for humans appears promising, but there are substantial areas of future work.
See also[edit | edit source]
- Feeding Everyone No Matter What - The full book main page
- David Denkenberger and Joshua Pearce, Feeding Everyone No Matter What: Managing Food Security After Global Catastrophe , 1st Edition, Academic Press, 2015
- Free Preview: Google books
- Cover on Academia
- Facebook page
- Alternative Foods as a Solution to Global Food Supply Catastrophes
- Resilience to global food supply catastrophes
- Feeding Everyone if the Sun is Obscured and Industry is Disabled
- Cost-Effectiveness of Interventions for Alternate Food to Address Agricultural Catastrophes Globally
- Feeding Everyone: Solving the Food Crisis in Event of Global Catastrophes that Kill Crops or Obscure the Sun
- Food without sun: Price and life-saving potential
- Cost-effectiveness of interventions for alternate food in the United States to address agricultural catastrophes
- Micronutrient Availability in Alternative Foods During Agricultural Catastrophes
- Preliminary Automated Determination of Edibility of Alternative Foods: Non-Targeted Screening for Toxins in Red Maple Leaf Concentrate
- Open Source Software Toolchain for Automated Non-Targeted Screening for Toxins in Alternative Foods
- Scaling of greenhouse crop production in low sunlight scenarios
- Potential of microbial protein from hydrogen for preventing mass starvation in catastrophic scenarios
- U.S. Potential of Sustainable Backyard Distributed Animal and Plant Protein Production During & After Pandemics
- Global distribution of forest classes and leaf biomass for use as alternative foods to minimize malnutrition
- Long-term cost-effectiveness of interventions for loss of electricity/industry compared to artificial general intelligence safety
- Long term cost-effectiveness of resilient foods for global catastrophes compared to artificial general intelligence safety
- Rapid repurposing of pulp and paper mills, biorefineries, and breweries for lignocellulosic sugar production in global food catastrophes
- Nutrition in Abrupt Sunlight Reduction Scenarios: Envisioning Feasible Balanced Diets on Resilient Foods
- Methane Single Cell Protein: securing protein supply during global food catastrophes
- Killing two birds with one stone: chemical and biological upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate plastics into food
- How Easy is it to Feed Everyone? Economic Alternatives to Eliminate Human Nutrition Deficits
- Quantifying Alternative Food Potential of Agricultural Residue in Rural Communities of Sub-Saharan Africa
- Yield and Toxin Analysis of Leaf Protein Concentrate from Common North American Coniferous Trees
- Toxic Analysis of Leaf Protein Concentrate Regarding Common Agricultural Residues
- Towards Sustainable Protein Sources: The Thermal and Rheological Properties of Alternative Proteins
- How we can mine asteroids for space food
Additional Information[edit source]
- ALLFED
- Dave Denkenberger Publications
- OSE Wiki "Synfood" (i.e. protein and other dietary components from microbial organisms fed on gas or other hydrocarbons)
Davos IDRC Conference[edit source]
- Feeding Everyone if Industry is Disabled
- Providing Non-food Needs if Industry is Disabled
- Vitamins in Agricultural Catastrophes
- Integrative Risk Management for Catastrophe Destroying 10-20% of Global Food Supply
In the News[edit | edit source]
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- CKNW (radio)
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- Asteroid may become new wonder-food for astronauts, claims new study Economic Times
- Astronauts seen to be eating asteroids soon Phillipine News Agency
- Scientists Propose Extracting Carbon From Asteroids To Create Food For Long-Term Space Missions Times Now News
- Asteroids Could Be Used To Prepare Meals For Future Astronauts: Study NDTV
- Astronaut Bisa Makan Asteroid di Masa Depan, Bagaimana Caranya? Media Indonesia
- Astronot Bisa Makan Asteroid di Masa Depan, Bagaimana Caranya? Kompas
- Astronotlar bir gün asteroitlerle beslenebilir Turkissh Aawsat
- Los futuros astronautas comerán asteroides en un plan alucinante revelado por científicos Teknomers Noticias
- Asteroidai gali būti naudojami ruošiant maistą būsimiems astronautams: tyrimas Medinavisiems
- Astronotlar bir gün asteroitlerle beslenebilir Kibrispostasi
- Asteroidy można wykorzystać do przygotowywania posiłków dla przyszłych astronautów: badanie VAJBS
- Ο αστεροειδής που μπορεί να γίνει το νέο super food – Μελέτη Cibum
- Astronautas poderão se alimentar de asteroides no futuro, sugere estudo MSN Br
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- Future astronauts may eat asteroids according to a study The Tatva
- Asteroids for dinner? Scientists research using asteroid bacteria to make space food BBC
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- Astronautas poderão se alimentar de asteroides no futuro, sugere estudo CNN Brasil
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- Manger des astéroïdes : l’idée folle pour nourrir les futurs astronautes SciencePost
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