High-Level Project Summary
Our project is about producing food from the air. It was discovered that a certain type of bacteria can consume water, some gasses, from the air, and electricity to produce a powder (called solien), which is composed of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. This Solin has no taste so it can be mixed with other meals or can add any test modifier so it would taste better. Solien can provide the astronauts with a great source of food on Mars and also it can reduce the carbon percentage in Mars's atmosphere as it consumes Co2 from the air during its process. It can also be used to reduce the produced CO2 from food factories on earth.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
First, bacteria from nature is captured, which is Hydrogenotrophs that has the ability to metabolize hydrogen as a source of energy with carbon dioxide to produce food and have a high concentration of protein and carbohydrates, then it passes by a process of fermentation - that is the chemical process by which molecules are broken down anaerobically- but in this process, the fermentation, takes place in a fermenter (metallic bioreactor) that contains a growth medium made of hydrogen and oxygen bubbles -formed by the electrolysis of water- and carbon dioxide bubbles that are captured from the air by the Direct Air Capture process that uses (Sodium hydroxide- NaOH) to react with air to form (Sodium Carbonate- Na2CO3) then it's heated to form (Sodium oxide – Na2O), (Carbon dioxide – Co2 ) and other nutrients as nitrogen, calcium, phosphor, and potassium. All these ingredients are combined with water to form the growth medium. The microbes begin to multiply then the liquid becomes thicker, and its upper part begins to dry and be removed, it's a dried cells that contains 65% proteins and the rest is carbohydrates of 10%, fats of 9%, 10% fibers, and 1% minerals that is called "Solein" that could be used as a protein ingredient.
Space Agency Data
We used the data about Mars's atmosphere that are from Nasa's websites to know if our project will work there or not.
Hackathon Journey
Space Apps was a new great experience in general. It taught us that by teamwork we can do many things in such a small period. We also gained many skills, like leadership and problem-solving, that will help us in our daily life. As we all know, the whole space agencies' focus is to find a way to colonize Mars. so, we wanted to make a project that will help in achieving this mission, but our journey of developing this project wasn't easy as we faced many setbacks. However, we managed to pass them by researching and teamwork.
References
[1] RESET.to , 2018 June 18 , Global Food Waste and its Environmental Impact: Green Living , Retrived from : https://en.reset.org
[2] Action Against Hunger , July 19, 2021, World Hunger: Key Facts and Statistics 2021 , Rerived from : https://www.actionagainsthunger.org
[3] TODAY.com , August 08, 2019 , Want to try out plant-based meat? Here are our top 10 product picks , Retrived from : https://www.today.com
[4]Ritchie, H. (2020). Environmental impacts of food production. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food
Tags
#Biotechnology #Food #starvation #Mars-Colonization
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.