SPACE MEATINGS: SpaceX to launch ‘fake steak’ test by sending artificial meat into space

The experiment will make use of a special microfluidic device. This will enable cow cells to grow and mature into cells that build muscle tissue, the cultivated steak, under microgravity conditions.

ADAM CAILLER: Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Space X is set to perform an experiment this week which could change the way we think about meat. An all-private crew will be launched onto the International Space Station, where the tests with Israel’s Aleph Farms will take place looking to create “fake steaks”. The meat-growing company is working on artificial alternatives to meat products normally made from cows.

A spokesman said: “Prolonged exploration in space, such as getting to Mars, is limited by the ability to provide quality nutrition to astronauts”. “Aleph Farms is developing a technological platform for the production of cultivated beef steaks in a process that consumes a significantly smaller portion of the resources needed to raise an entire animal for meat”…

The four-person crew on the 10-day mission consists of former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, a real estate millionaire Larry Connor, businessman Mark Pathy and Israeli philanthropist and former Israel Defence Force fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe. The latter will have the monumental task of transporting the farm’s microlab and plugging it into ISS power and monitoring systems.

Aleph Farm’s Dr Zvika Tamari said: “Our experiment will make use of a special microfluidic device. “This will enable cow cells to grow and mature into cells that build muscle tissue, the cultivated steak, under microgravity conditions”. “This constitutes a totally different environment for these processes to take place, which means that a lot of work is required in order to establish the conditions and procedures that can ensure their successful implementation”. SOURCE…

RELATED VIDEO: