NASA’s five-year long bio-manufacturing experiment in Space : BioNutrients, nears completion

BioNutrients, NASA’s bio-manufacturing experiment in Space, which has been in execution for over five years is now nearing its completion. The same was updated by NASA in one of their latest blogs. The BioNutrients experiment was launched at the International Space Station in 2019. NASA Ames developed BioNutrients.

The BioNutrients experiment is testing ways to use microorganisms to produce on-demand nutrients. Human health is an important factor in space, and these nutrients will be significantly critical for the same during long-duration space missions. As part of the experiment, an assessment of the stability and performance of a hand-held system to manufacture fresh vitamins and other nutrients in space over five years is carried out. This hand-held system is called a production pack.

Natalie Ball, Hiromi Kagawa, and Sandra Vu, researchers in the ISS carried out the last of a planned series of BioNutrients production packs. This was done after JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa’s duplicate experiment onboard the orbiting laboratory was done. Earth will receive the samples of this in-space production by February on Axiom Mission 3.

The possibility that NASA can produce nutrients after a period of five years in space, opens up a lot of space for confidence that NASA can support crewed missions to March.