{"id":174044,"date":"2025-11-11T00:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T00:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/174044\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T00:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T00:21:07","slug":"european-space-agency-develops-protein-powder-from-urine-for-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/174044\/","title":{"rendered":"European Space Agency develops protein powder from urine for astronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Space Agency has launched a new program<\/a> that could have astronauts survive on a protein powder made from \u201cthin air\u201d and urine during long missions, the agency said in a press release.<\/a><\/p>\n

The pilot program aims to test the possibility of using a new protein powder called Solein, which requires air, microbes and electricity to create. <\/p>\n

The creation of the powder involves a bacterial culture that is fed with hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen-filled urine. <\/p>\n

The substance is being developed with Solar Foods<\/a>, a Finnish food technology company. The goal with this new technology is to recycle resources produced by the crew and future missions\u2019 habitat life support systems. <\/p>\n

The European Space Agency has begun funding a project to develop the protein powder that could eventually be used on the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The first steps of this new project, the HOBI-WAN (Hydrogen Oxidizing Bacteria In Weightlessness As a source of Nutrition) project, will begin by developing and testing this technology on the ground before testing on the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project aims at developing a key resource which will allow us to improve human spaceflight\u2019s autonomy, resilience and also the well-being of our astronauts,\u201d Angelique Van Ombergen, the European Space Agency\u2019s chief exploration scientist, said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor human beings to be able to implement long-duration missions on the Moon, or even one day, to go to Mars, will require innovative and sustainable solutions to be able to survive with limited supplies,\u201d she said. \u201cWith this project, we, the European Space Agency, are developing a key capability for the future of space exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Space Agency has launched a new program that could have astronauts survive on a protein powder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,15519,133,99235],"class_list":{"0":"post-174044","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-iss","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sts-120"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115528209768284786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}