Nasa has given a six-month grant to a company developing the world's first 3D food printer.
The printer will use proteins, carbohydrates and sugars to create edible food products, according to news website Quartz. Due to how basic these ingredients are, they can be derived from anything with organic molecules.
The printer is the brainchild of Anjan Contractor of Systems & Materials Research Corporation, who told Quartz: “I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can’t supply 12 billion people sufficiently, so we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food.”
According to the funding proposal's summary, the system seeks to be a great advantage to space missions as it eliminates food waste and provides "maximum shelf life for the nutrients for the future space missions".
“Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life,” Contractor told Quartz. “The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years.”
Read the full story on Quartz.
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