By the time NASAs manned mission to Mars is ready for lift-off in a couple of decades as planned, dosas and chapattis could be on the in-flight menu. They wouldnt require a tawa or a skilled hand to deliver a perfectly round product either they would simply be printed. And the brain behind this hi-tech cuisine is Indian-American engineer Anjan Contractor.
Earlier this year, the American space agency, NASA, awarded a research grant to Systems and Materials Research Consultancy, or SMRC, Contractors company based in Austin, Texas, to explore the feasibility of additive manufacturing, popularly termed 3D printing, for making food in space. The Ahmedabad-born Contractor, 34, a senior mechanical engineer, says that NASA funded this project based on his idea and preliminary work on 3D food printing. He is himself the project manager in the SMRC team working on the futuristic 3D food printer.
NASAs grant is part of its Small Business Innovation Research programme. The Phase 1 contract is worth $125,000 for the six-month study. As NASA ventures farther into space, whether redirecting an asteroid or sending astronauts to Mars, the agency will need to make improvements in life-support systems, including how to feed the crew during those long deep-space missions, says David Steitz, a NASA spokesman at the agencys Washington, DC, headquarters. NASA has said it plans to capture and relocate an asteroid by 2025 and send a human mission to Mars by the 2030s.
The nutritional needs of people in space will be an important part of these plans. Fine dining isnt exactly on the plate for todays astronauts, but they are still better off than the pioneers. Crew members on Americas initial space programmes, Mercury and Gemini, were provided cold food in tubes, points out Grace Douglas, a food technology scientist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Hot water and the ability to heat foods were introduced in the subsequent Apollo and space shuttle missions.
Today, NASA provides its astronauts with around 200 food and drink options, but they are all thermally processed, irradiated or dried to prevent food spoilage at ambient temperature storage, as refrigeration and freezing are unavailable due to constraints of storage, weight and power on space vehicles. Crewmembers do not have access to fresh foods, and without gravity they cant customise foods beyond the addition of basic condiments. The astronauts have commented that, in flight, they miss the fresh textures and flavours of food at home, says Douglas. The 3D food printer proposed by Contractor and his colleagues will provide hot and quick food in addition to personalised nutrition, flavour and taste, according to SMRC.
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The digital media outlet, Quartz, described the companys prototype pizza printer that prints a layer of dough, which is baked at the same time as it is printed by a heated plate at the bottom of the printer. Next it lays down a tomato base and is finally topped with a protein layer. It can thus produce a pizza that is the closest the astronauts can get to a real one in taste and feel 400 km in space.
While Contractor is only now working on his pizza 3D printer, last year he showcased a 3D food printer based on the Open Source RepRap printer model Prusa Mendel, which printed out chocolates.
For Contractor, from his childhood in Gujarat to being the moving force food printing technology that could change food economics is a 17-year-long story. He was born in Ahmedabad and had his schooling there. He arrived in the United States when he was 17. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Ohio State University. He then moved to Austin and began working at SMRC.
The young innovators interests include reading scientific journals with topics that have potential to change the world in the coming years, as he says. He adds that he has long been inspired by social activist Jaya Prakash Narayan and likes listening to Shashi Tharoor, Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi, among others from India. Contractor plays cricket regularly in a Texas league and is a fan of Aamir Khan and loves Anurag Kashyaps movies.
While Contractor enjoys a variety of cuisines, including South and North Indian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Mexican, German, Brazilian, he discloses that David Irvin, the principal scientist of SMRCs 3D food printer project, loves Indian food. We will definitely attempt printing Indian food, promises Contractor. We are excited about printing chapati and dosa.
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The Texas companys mandate is to look at the development of a 3D food printer system for long-duration space missions. 3D printing uses digital files to produce three-dimensional objects in an additive process, laying down successive layers of material in required shapes. It differs from traditional manufacturing, which is typically a subtractive process involving removal of material by methods like cutting or drilling to shape the product.SMRC also proposes to extend the shelf life of food and nutrients by storing macronutrients in dry, sterile containers until they are fed into the printer. The current shelf life of processed food on space missions is one-and-a-half to two years, whereas long-distance space travel could require a shelf life of 15 years or more.
In its proposal, SMRC offered to build a complete nutritional system using 3D printing and inkjet technologies. The 3D printer would deliver macronutrients such as starch, protein and fat in a variety of shapes and textures. If that sounds unappetising, the inkjet will add micronutrients, flavour and smell to the products. SMRC plans to team up with the food science programme at North Carolina State University and the multinational company International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. to develop its recipes.
NASA cautions that the current project is only a Phase 1 study, which may result in a Phase 2 study, which would still be several years from being tested on an actual space flight. Douglas says it is too early to know the full capabilities of a potential 3D food printer and the cooking processes it could provide.
According to SMRCs proposed design, the macronutrient stocks will be combined with water or oil according to a digital recipe at the print head. Flavours and texture modifiers can be added at this stage, and the mixture is then blended and extruded into the desired shape. SMRC also sees several potential non-space related commercial applications for its food printer. Among them is their use in military missions, aircraft carriers and submarines.
The company says 3D food printing technology will also prove valuable in meeting the future demand for food with the global population anticipated to reach 12 billion by the end of the century. The current infrastructure of food production and supply will not be able to meet the demand of such a large population, according to SMRC.
NASAs Douglas says that some astronauts have noted that flavour perception is altered in microgravity, which could be partially attributed to a fluid shift to their heads during space flight. Space people tend to like spicy foods in flight, she says. A piping hot, printed masala dosa could be the perfect solution.
Raise a cheer for Contractor!
