Advancing food production capabilities in deep space while supporting food security in Nunavut
Humans are pushing the limits of space exploration and now seek to live and work on the Moon. That means astronauts will have to produce their own food 400,000 km away from Earth. Growing nutritious food in an extreme and hostile environment will be a challenge – one that Inuit communities in Nunavut are familiar with. In many ways, the development of food production technologies for future space missions can help improve food accessibility in these remote northern communities.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) recently awarded a contract to The Growcer Inc. for a total value of up to $745,000. The Growcer Inc. will work with Arctic Fresh Group of Companies, an Inuit-owned enterprise in Nunavut, to co-develop a concept for a deployable Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) unit. A CEA unit is an enclosed or semi-enclosed system, such as a container, where conditions (light, temperature, humidity, etc.) are optimized to produce fresh fruits and vegetables.
The proposed design will be informed by Inuit knowledge of Northern Canada and grounded in the realities of life in the North.
With this study, the CSA is exploring ways to ensure the availability of nutritious food both in remote regions on Earth and for future long-duration missions to deep space.