[ti:NASA Supports New Methods to Grow Food in Space]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]The American space agency NASA
[00:03.48]is supporting new methods to grow food in space
[00:08.84]to support astronauts during long missions.
[00:13.16]NASA recently announced the winners of a competition
[00:18.32]in which teams proposed ways
[00:21.36]to produce unusual foods in space.
[00:25.20]The agency plans to send astronauts
[00:29.56]to the moon and Mars in the future.
[00:33.08]It also hopes to establish long-term bases in space.
[00:38.48]To do this, NASA says it will need to find
[00:42.48]effective food production systems
[00:45.56]to support human space travelers.
[00:48.96]NASA's competition is called the Deep Space Food Challenge.
[00:55.88]The latest part of the challenge involved teams
[01:00.56]creating small, working models
[01:03.48]of food production systems designed for space.
[01:08.00]The systems should require few resources
[01:12.64]and create little waste.
[01:15.56]Judges from NASA chose eight winners.
[01:19.68]Five of the teams are based in the United States.
[01:24.00]The others were based in Australia, Sweden and Finland.
[01:29.52]NASA invited all the winners to create
[01:33.40]full-size versions of their food production methods
[01:37.44]over the next year.
[01:39.92]The U.S. teams also each received $150,000
[01:46.48]in prize money to help develop their systems.
[01:51.04]Amy Kaminski helped organize the competition
[01:55.28]for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington.
[02:01.64]Kaminski said she was pleased to announce the winners
[02:06.32]and looks forward to seeing "where these teams
[02:10.36]can take their technologies next."
[02:13.32]One of the winners was Air Company of Brooklyn, New York.
[02:18.56]The company developed a system for turning air,
[02:22.84]water, electricity and yeast into food.
[02:27.08]The company says the system can turn carbon dioxide
[02:32.60]that astronauts breathe out into high-protein nutrients
[02:37.80]to support humans in space.
[02:40.48]Air Company's co-founder
[02:43.44]and Chief Technology Officer is Stafford Sheehan.
[02:48.24]He told Reuters news agency
[02:51.36]that the yeast-based food is healthier than the drink Tang.
[02:57.44]Tang was a drink product that NASA astronaut
[03:01.52]John Glenn popularized in 1962
[03:06.48]when he became the first American to orbit Earth.
[03:11.04]Sheehan said he first developed
[03:13.96]his carbon-conversion technology
[03:16.76]as a way to produce high-purity alcohols for jet fuel,
[03:22.44]the alcoholic drink vodka and other products.
[03:26.68]He noted that the NASA competition
[03:30.28]led him to change his invention
[03:33.32]to produce a protein-rich mix for astronauts.
[03:38.12]Sheehan said his product is similar
[03:41.44]to many protein shakes on the market.
[03:44.32]He compared its taste to that of seitan,
[03:49.28]a tofu-like food made from wheat gluten
[03:53.48]sometimes used as a substitute for meat.
[03:57.40]He said the product is "sweet tasting."
[04:01.88]Among the other winners were a bioregenerative system
[04:07.08]from a Florida laboratory to raise fresh vegetables,
[04:11.48]mushrooms and even insects to be used as food.
[04:16.44]A team from California said it developed a process
[04:21.16]that copies the natural photosynthesis process
[04:25.68]to produce plant and mushroom-based materials.
[04:30.24]And scientists in Finland created a system
[04:35.16]that uses gas fermentation to produce proteins.
[04:40.28]Up to $1.5 million in prize money will be divided
[04:46.32]among the final winners of the competition.
[04:50.04]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM