Space bacon, anyone? Canadian semifinalists tackle space food challenge in contest
So it’s lunchtime on Day 800 of your three-year trip to Mars and, as you hurtle through space, you and three fellow astronauts sit down for a bite.
What’s on the menu?
Could be a protein shake from algae grown on near-waterless biofilms. Maybe a tasty spread made from crickets, with a few mini-greenhouse strawberries on the side. How about some “scrambled eggs,” processed from microbes, together with a slice or two of “space bacon,” a.k.a. mushroom mycelia?
Those are all suggestions from 10 Canadian semifinalists in the Deep Space Food Challenge, co-sponsored by NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.