What’s Solar Foods doing in space? Is Solein a space food?

Primarily, Solein is meant to be enjoyed on Earth, but due to its production method and nutritional richness Solein is also excellently suitable to be suited as a space food for astronauts.

Space missions face a similar food-related challenge as arid or Arctic areas of our planet: maintaining a secure supply of nourishment in conditions where agriculture is not possible. In space, the possibilities to prepare food are extremely limited. At Solar Foods, we are solving this challenge by recreating our Solein bioprocess to fit smaller confines. The results so far show it can be done.

Our Space & Resilience work aims to help take humanity deeper into space while developing Solein production for extreme conditions here on Earth. Solar Foods took part in the Deep Space Food Challenge by NASA and CSA, an initiative that works to find ways to produce food on space missions. In 2021, we were declared one of the international winners of Phase I of the challenge; in May 2023, we were among the winners of the challenge’s Phase II and finally in 2024 Solar Foods was selected as the international category winner.

We have also co-operated with ESABIC (European Space Agency Business Incubator) to study pre-feasibility for producing Solein during a Mars mission. In 2023 we were granted an European Space Agency – ESA contract under the ESA’s Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) to address the design of critical subsystems for a space fairing Solein production system.

You can read more about solving food crises from Mars missions to arid deserts in the article by our SVP Space & Defense, Arttu Luukanen.