Crater to plate

Humanity has big plans for space: a new international space station orbiting the moon within five years; a lunar settlement this decade; and a crewed mission to Mars by 2040.

In all cases, the rocket science required presents significant challenges. But in many ways, that’s the easy part. Arguably the greatest current obstacle to long-term crewed space exploration is the difficulty of keeping fresh, healthy food on astronauts’ plates.

For numerous reasons, regularly resupplying the pantry from Earth simply isn’t an option. It’s also not yet possible to keep large stores of food nutritionally stable in space for long periods of time. Astronauts are going to have to grow their own—and world-leading research into how this can be done is being led right here at the University of Adelaide.

Join us for a firsthand look inside this critical project.

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