Prepare for years (physically, intellectually and psychologically), train tirelessly, survive the launch of a huge rocket, spend months in a sardine can, expose yourself to all kinds of complications derived from radiation and microgravity, manage to land in conditions very complex and, finally, arrive at the Martian base, take off the suit and enjoy a fantastic sandwich of… crickets.
That is the future according to researchers from the University of South Australia and the International Space University of France: crickets. And the worst thing is that they are not without reason.
It’s not going to be easy. If we want to have a future up there, we must be aware that we need formulas that guarantee safe, nutritious and, if possible, tasty food. After all, when we talk about round trips, we can supply the ships from Earth. But when we talk about permanent bases on distant planets, things go awry.
Raise cows in space, but it won’t be soon. In 2021, NASA and the Canadian CSA decided to launch the Deep Space Food Challenge, a public competition that encouraged the development of food production technologies and systems both in space and on our planet.
The challenge was “simple.” “Formulas were needed to feed four people during a three-year round-trip space mission without the possibility of resupply.” And the proposals were very varied: from growing vegetables in conditions similar to those on Mars or systems for baking bread on a space shuttle to using microalgae to obtain “crispy snacks.” Whatever that is.
And insects, of course. Because that’s what “MARTLET” was about, a system of breeding, harvesting and processing to produce protein-rich foods based on tens of thousands of crickets.
Irons? Crickets, yes. That family of brown-black orthoptera insects with nocturnal habits that we usually identify by their sound. It may seem like an unappealing idea, but (unfortunately for future Martians) it seems to make sense. In 2020, the University of South Australia and the International Space University of France launched a project called “Lunar Agriculture” that sought to identify the most interesting (and cost-effective) ways to produce food supply chains in space.
As Juan Escaliter explained, insects already have many advantages in themselves (“they take up little space, they reproduce quickly, they can serve as food and, depending on the species, they contribute to creating more fertile soil for growing vegetables”). However, it is when we compare them with other options, when they become the great bet of space livestock.
There are other options… Raising large or small animals is a tricky topic because the conditions of gravity (whether on a planet or in a ship) make the bone, muscle and endocrine development of animals dangerously different. No one knows for sure what would happen to an Angus cow in a barn on Mars.
The other option would be fish. “They are more efficient at feeding and produce less waste than their terrestrial counterparts.” The problem is that accumulating large amounts of water in space (and keeping it at appropriate temperature conditions) is not an easy task either. As Escaliter points out, we’re not even sure we can put fish eggs in good condition into orbit.
…but none as good. Yeasts, bacteria or fungi of different types are the other options and, thanks to the latest generation bioreactors, they are also good candidates. But the kings are still crickets (or other similar insects).
Above all, because they provide much more than food. In a closed system such as the one that would exist in space, insects can play important roles such as pollination of greenhouses, soil renewal or waste processing.
The future, they are clear, is in crickets. We better make room for it in our hearts (and another in our stomach).
In WorldOfSoftware | The challenge of how to eat on Mars is studied in Barcelona: this is MELiSSA, the project to grow edible biomass in space
Image | Nicolas Lobos
*An earlier version of this article was published in January 2024
