The experiment could go a long way towards helping space travelers make their own nutritious, delicious ingredients.
Forget chalky freeze-dried ice cream or some individually packaged mashed potatoes. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have now proved that delectable fermented delicacies like the Japanese soybean paste known as miso can be prepared in space.
This might sound like a big deal only to ISS residents who are craving some better meals, but it could have major implications for more ambitious space missions. One of the major issues with planning such voyages, which could include future trips to Mars, is the problem of keeping astronauts fed for extended periods of time. Being able to ferment their own ingredients could not only help with nutrition—it could also provide some much-needed joy and comfort in the form of delicious meals.
The road to this culinary breakthrough started in March 2020, when an international team of food scientists sent a package containing a mixture of soybeans, rice kōji, and salt up to the ISS. Once it arrived, the astronauts aboard were tasked with running an experiment to see if the mixture would ferment, producing the tasty paste we know and love.
The researchers who created the mixture described their reasons for picking miso in the journal iScience.
