team-19-creating-printing-of-spacefood

We are designing a concept for 3D printing food in space from alternative food sources. The purpose of this project is to solve the food problems at ISS and to bring new ideas and solutions for future manned space missions and explorations, also address the food shortage that eventually we’ll be facing in near future on earth. The main concept is designing a polar 3D printer which is cheaper, more efficient, has less parts and it can function well in space and also on earth. The printer will have extruders (cartridges) that are made from plastic materials recently discovered at MIT which have properties to be resistant to any dirt or leftovers from the cartridge insights. These new cartridges can be managed with the space squisher and also should replace the printers head. The materials from which the printer should produce food are natural and organic fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat, supplements, etc. The printer will include a small hot-air oven for making bread and cooking the designed food which will be bite-sized and the astronaut or any people will have the opportunity to print as much food as they need with the exact amount of protein, minerals and vitamins and this is the way that we are facing the food recycling challenge. Also the oven can regulate the foods structure in a way that we can make the food to be crispy, soft and any regulation within the structure of the food. We simply don’t want to let people make food leftovers, especially not in ISS or any place which is complicated for maintenance. This technology can also reduce the amount of food and can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of bringing food at far distances like ISS, Mars or anywhere on Earth. We will achieve this by storing dehydrated powder food coated with gelatin or oil in the cartridges. Every cartridge will have enough amount of powder for 1 meal and the cartridges

Project Information

Resources