Coblentz Maggie, Evans Joshua D, Kothe Caroline Isabel, Mak Tiffany, Valerón Nabila Rodríguez, Chwalek Patrick, Wejendorp Kim, Garg Shilpa, Pless Louisa, Mak Sarah, Sörensen Pia M, Jahn Leonie Johanna, Ekblaw Ariel
Space Exploration Initiative, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Sustainable Food Innovation, The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
iScience. 2025 Apr 2;28(4):112189. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112189. eCollection 2025 Apr 18.
Space exploration is expanding, which demands new technologies and enables new scientific questions. Food, as a bridge between disciplines, can bring these fundamental and applied goals together. Here, we investigate whether food fermentation in space is possible and if so, how it compares with fermentation on Earth. We fermented a miso, a traditional Japanese condiment, on the International Space Station over 30 days and compared it with two earthbound controls. Based on environmental metadata, shotgun metagenomics, whole-genome sequencing, untargeted metabolomics, colorimetry, and sensory analysis, we found that overall, the space miso is recognizable as a miso, indicating fermentation in space is possible. We also found some key microbiological and sensory differences in the space miso, which suggest distinctive features of the space environment. These findings can be harnessed to create more flavorful, nourishing foods for long-term space missions and invite further research questions across science, health, technology, and society.
太空探索正在不断拓展，这需要新技术并催生新的科学问题。食物作为学科之间的桥梁，可以将这些基础目标和应用目标结合起来。在此，我们研究了在太空中进行食物发酵是否可行，如果可行，它与地球上的发酵相比情况如何。我们在国际空间站上对一种传统日本调味品味噌进行了30天的发酵，并将其与两个地面对照组进行了比较。基于环境元数据、鸟枪法宏基因组学、全基因组测序、非靶向代谢组学、比色法和感官分析，我们发现总体而言，太空味噌仍可被识别为味噌，这表明在太空中进行发酵是可行的。我们还发现太空味噌在微生物学和感官方面存在一些关键差异，这表明了太空环境的独特特征。这些发现可用于为长期太空任务创造更美味、营养更丰富的食物，并引发了横跨科学、健康、技术和社会等领域的更多研究问题。
