Space

The mission of Solar Foods is to solve the global food crisis. We work towards this end through the development and building of commercial-scale Solein factories that will produce nutritious and functional protein with minimal emissions and resources spent.

However, we also look with interest beyond Earth: Space is the ultimate stress test for our production technology. It represents both an opportunity to advance the history of science and a change to grow and diversify our business.

Our current centralised agricultural system is vulnerable to disruptions. Drought and other climate conditions combined with geopolitical instability are creating increasingly serious challenges. We are working to scale up our production technology to industrial scale, but at the same time, we are also working to scale it down to take our production process mobile, which provides new solutions for demanding conditions. Remote communities or outposts – or in more unfortunate cases, disaster zones or military defence situations – need a secure source of food in case normal supply is cut off.

Solar Foods’ aim is to integrate the Solein fermentation technology with the onboard life support systems of future commercial space stations as well as future surface habitats on the Moon and eventually on Mars. The Solein production technology offers an attractive value add to commercial space habitat operators through substantial reduction in resupply needs of food and especially water, in addition to providing a fresh source of nutritious protein onboard.

Mars is one of humanity’s goals in space, but the issue of a secure food supply has still not fully been resolved. The duration of a Mars mission would be measured in years. Taking all the necessary food along would be virtually impossible with current spaceships. Growing food on-flight would help the mission to actually become a reality.

We are currently developing our Solein production technology for testing onboard the International Space Station in a project funded by ESA (European Space Agency). In 2024, Solar Foods was selected as the international category winner of NASA’s and CSA’s (Canadian Space Agency) Deep Space Food Challenge, providing a solution for future space explorers.