left: oyster mushrooms. right: a view of one of Earth's poles from space.
For the first time, the "Mission MushVroom" experiment on SpaceX's Fram2 mission will attempt to grow mushrooms in space. Left: Zinnmann via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0. Right: Norman Kuring, NASA / GSFC / Suomi NPP
With NASA aiming to send humans to Mars as soon as the 2030s and SpaceX’s Elon Musk aiming for as early as 2029, we are the closest we’ve ever been to achieving interplanetary crewed spaceflight. In addition to the technological advances required to put a human on Mars, however, is the very practical necessity of developing sustainable food sources in space.
“Who can eat thermostabilized, dehydrated food for five years?” space nutritionist Flávia Fayet-Moore says to Sky News.
Fayet-Moore is the founder and chief executive of FOODiQ Global, an Australian company aiming to be the first to grow mushrooms in microgravity. And the firm is about to get its chance: When SpaceX’s Fram2 mission launches four private astronauts to space no sooner than March 31, FOODiQ’s “Mission MushVroom” experiment will also be on board.
Fram2 will be the first crewed mission to orbit over Earth’s polar regions—and “Mission MushVroom will be the first study to grow mushrooms in space,” reads a Fram2 statement from Monday. “Oyster mushrooms are the perfect space crop, helping astronauts meet their nutritional needs on long-duration space missions like those to Mars, while closing the loop in plant agriculture and helping to minimize inputs and waste.”
four astronauts in white suits pose in front of a white wall with sketches of a rocket and spacecraft
The four private astronauts of the SpaceX Fram2 mission crew pose for a photo. From the left: Eric Philips (Australia), Chun Wang (Malta), Rabea Rogge (Germany) and Jannicke Mikkelsen (Norway). SpaceX
The experiment consists of a small box of substrate (the equivalent of plant soil for growing mushrooms) and mycelium (the root-like structure of the fungus), which scientists hope will fruit into oyster mushrooms while traveling hundreds of miles above Earth’s surface. The crew member responsible for checking on the experiment is the Australian polar explorer Eric Philips.
“I will monitor how the fruiting bodies grow, documenting development rate, signs of contamination and various other properties,” Philips explains to Jano Gibson of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “This is an exciting opportunity to push the boundaries and play a role in creating sustainable food solutions for space—something I never imagined I would explore.”
Over their three- to five-day mission, the Fram2 crew will carry out 22 science experiments. Another research project, called SpaceXray, intends to take the first X-ray image of a human in space. This achievement “will open the door to a vast array of clinical, research and engineering applications,” according to the statement.
Once back on Earth, any successful mushroom growth will be analyzed in a lab. The team will compare those fungi to control mushroom kits that have been stored in Florida.
The researchers consider mushrooms the “perfect space crop,” because they grow fast, don’t need a lot of water and are nutritional—containing vitamin D, potassium, selenium and copper, as Fayet-Moore tells the Guardian’s Donna Lu. Oyster mushrooms can also be eaten raw, which is an important feature. “In space, NASA is only prioritizing crops that you can literally pick and eat, because we don’t have the capabilities to process food in microgravity yet,” Fayet-Moore adds to the ABC.
The potential applications of mushrooms in space, however, could transcend the kitchen—for example, NASA is researching the use of mushrooms as architectural material to grow human habitats in space. So, if the MushVroom experiment is successful, it might open the door to making mushrooms something like a Swiss Army knife of multiplanetary existence.