Dark Food: Feeding People in Space Without Photosynthesis

Abstract

Production of food in space via photosynthetic crops similar to the ones we use on Earth requires profligate use of resources that will be in short supply in early long duration space missions. We demonstrate that production of bulk calories via chemotrophic single-cell organisms is 2–3 orders of magnitude less expensive in terms of energy, volume, and water usage than via photosynthetic crops. In addition, we survey the history and current state of the art in production of food from nonphotosynthetic single-cell organisms.