An Australian company will attempt to be the first to grow a crop of mushrooms in space, aboard SpaceX’s Fram2 mission set to launch in early April.
In an experiment aboard Fram2, the first human spaceflight mission to orbit Earth’s polar regions, the Australian firm FOODiQ Global is aiming to grow oyster mushrooms in microgravity.
Launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Fram2 mission is planned to last between three and five days. The mushroom experiment will be conducted on the last day by the Australian adventurer Eric Philips.
Phillips will be only the fourth Australian-born person to go to space, after Dr Paul Scully-Power and Dr Andy Thomas, who flew for Nasa as US citizens, and Dr Chris Boshuizen in 2021, whose suborbital journey aboard a Blue Origin vehicle lasted about 10 minutes.
FOODiQ Global’s chief executive, Dr Flávia Fayet-Moore, described mushrooms as a “perfect space crop”, citing their fast growth, ability to be eaten raw and nutritional value.
“Because we don’t have technology to process food in space yet … Nasa is currently prioritising research into ‘grow, pick and eat’ crops – things like lettuce, tomatoes and mushrooms,” she said.
Mushrooms are one of the few foods that naturally contain vitamin D, which increases when they are exposed to ultraviolet light.
“They double in size every day,” Fayet-Moore said. “They don’t need a lot of inputs: they don’t need any special fertilisers, they don’t need a lot of water.”
“They also have potassium that’s found in vegetables, but then they also have selenium and copper, which are typically found in nuts and seeds,” she said. “It’s a very versatile example of a nutrient-dense food.”
Food and nutrition for lunar and Mars missions numbers among the top 30 priorities in Nasa’s list of civil space challenges.
It is not the first time fungi have been sent to space. Last August, an Australian experiment led by Swinburne University astrophysicists Dr Sara Webb and Dr Rebecca Allen sent vials containing lion’s mane, turkey tail and Cordyceps to the International Space Station.
The vials contained mycelia (root-like networks of fungi) but did not have adequate space for mushrooms (the fruiting bodies of the organisms) to grow.
Aboard Fram2, if the mycelia fruit into oyster mushrooms, Philips will be responsible for documenting mushroom growth, crop yield and signs of contamination.
Upon return to Earth, FOODiQ Global will analyse the mushrooms’ nutritional content to see how microgravity affected their growth, comparing the results to control kits stored in Florida.
