Grants and Contributions

Our food technology is centered around a yeast strain that is specially adapted to the space environment (AstroYeast). The yeast acts as a chassis to produce the nutrients crew members will need for their long voyage to our celestial neighbours, combined with flavour molecules that enhance the dining experience. The production of these nutrients and flavour molecules is performed in an automated and optimized bioreactor system. The end product is a delicious and nutritious yeast spread which can be safely consumed.

CANGrow is a novel modular polyculture indoor food production system that will enable long term space exploration. The CANGrow system incorporates novel technologies in order to offer the widest possible variety of foods with optimal yield. It grows a diversity of biologically efficient food products: strawberries, cherry tomatoes, two root vegetables, microgreens, four unique culinary herbs, mini-head lettuce, an algae superfood, and a mycelial meat substitute - “space bacon”. The technology has the potential to provide over 500kg of nutrient dense food annually.

The Cricket Rearing, Collection, and Transformation System (CRCTS) is designed to be a protein source for astronauts and humans in remote environments on Earth by growing and harvesting protein-rich crickets in a first-of-its-kind controlled environment. Starting with nothing but a few hundred eggs, the CRCTS can quickly support the growth of tens of thousands of crickets every month. The CRCTS uses advanced filters, UVC lamps, and vacuum systems to completely isolate the crickets from the human living environment, ensuring minimal contamination risk throughout all system operations.

InSpira PBR - part of YOUR Green Revolution. The InSpira PBR is novel and modular 6-vessel photobioreactor i.e. a bioreactor with an embedded light source to cultivate microalgae in cartridge vessels. It is coupled with a harvesting and processing unit to transform the culture output into an edible gel that can be consumed as-is or used as a flavouring and dietary supplement when added onto other food products. It will allow operators to produce food in harsh environmental conditions, both in outer space and on earth while minimizing space usage, energy inputs, and skills required.

We will use safe microbes to up-cycle human waste into feedstock for our platform organism Euglena gracilis. Euglena is a robust organism with an amazing nutrient profile that we are already using on earth in future food applications. Our solution is ideal because microbes have an ability to break-down human waste into feedstocks that can be transformed into food using Euglena. We will maximize our efficiency by taking advantage of Euglena’s photosynthetic capacity, and growing microbes in energy efficient bioreactors monitored and controlled by an autonomous AI system.

PeaPod is a precision-automated plant growth environment for low-maintenance modular food production and distributed research. PeaPod is able to generate any desired environment to grow any crop, while collecting data on plant growth to optimize food products over time via machine learning. The insulated growth environment is extendable and modular, and is easily adapted to suit plant selection and mission requirements. PeaPod uses a set of automated control systems to generate the desired environment, including air thermoregulation, humidification, dehumidification, lighting, and aeroponics.

The “Canada GOOSE” is a controlled environment plant growth chamber designed to push the boundaries of high-density crop production yielding a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms complete with power and water supply. Exploiting uniquely Canadian controlled environment technology and expertise, this design innovates ways to achieve homogeneous conditions within a high-density production system. While meant to address the supply of fresh nutritious food for astronauts, the chamber could be installed in remote areas or harsh environments to improve food security around the world.

The algae rack system is used to cultivate highly nutritional microalgae for human consumption. It minimizes water and energy usage through its innovative design.

There is currently a bottleneck in getting scientific and imagery data back to Earth from the Moon due to constraints in RF link capacity, itself dictated by the limited Size, Weight And Power (SWAP) of lunar landers. Optical links could provide two to three orders of magnitude higher bandwidth at reduced SWAP but require resilient designs to cope with the Moon’s rugged environment.

The BOLD project objective is to advance the Technology Readiness Level of optical lasercom terminals by validating the technology in Moon simulated environment to be used on lander platforms on the Moon surface. The BOLD technology would provide nominally 50 Mb/s, with peaks at up to 100 Mb/s, of data capacity representing a thousand-fold increase in data link capacity. It will allow satellite communication technologies developed for low earth orbit to reach the lunar surface and enable high-speed Internet communication directly from the Moon surface back to Earth.

This project « Canadian Science and
Engineering – a Path Back to the Moon »
objective is to create a new suite of
programs that will increase knowledge and
awareness of STEM topics within the Canadian
space context for youth and educators in
Northern Alberta. The core of these programs
will be the creation of a new live
planetarium show that will explore the work
done by diverse Canadian scientists and
engineers involved in the Lunar Gateway
mission, which is returning humans to the
Moon. The show will explore Canadian
achievements in space research and
engineering through the years, from the
start with Alouette-I to today's challenges
of once again exploring the Moon. The live
presentation will also showcase Canadian
robotics and space imaging expertise, and
the challenges that need to be overcome to
return humans to the Moon.