Growing fish in space: Lab-grown tuna could feed astronauts of the future

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Credit: Los Angeles Magazine

…. [S]ending items into space is extremely expensiveโ€”about $10,000 a pound. Space dwellers will need to find a way to make their own food. But in the vacuum of space, how are we going to โ€œlive off the land?โ€

Emeryville, CA-based Finless Foods thinks it has the answer: grow fish meat in spaceโ€ฆwithout the fish. And theyโ€™ve shown itโ€™s possible, raising hopes not just for space colonization, but also for sustainable, cultured food here on Earth.

As if making fishcakes from a few fish cells were not enough, Finless Foods has also shown the potential of cellular agriculture in humanityโ€™s quest to explore space. Last year, they sent fish muscle cells to the International Space Station in collaboration with a Russian mission and 3D Bioprinting Solutions, who provided a 3D bioprinter. The team was able to grow the cells to a certain density, then use the bioprinter to arrange the fish cells into 3D structures, forming small spheres of cells ….

You may think, โ€œWhy do all of this in space?โ€ Well, if colonization is going to be possible in space, we would need to be self-sustainable and grow food on site. The average tuna weighs 20 pounds, costing about $200,000 to send it to space. And itโ€™s problematic to have a fish tank in space, where water is precious and gravity is lacking.

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