Martian bread : fermentation based on bacteria from human microbiota

The Apollo 11 mission brought the first humans on the moon and back in 8 days 3 hours and 19 minutes. An inhabited mission to Mars will take years – the one-way trip is estimated at 6 months at the shortest. The organization of such a journey requires spectacular scientific and technological skills, including the transport of hundreds of tons of material and resources. The solution? A completely autonomous station including at the food level. We’ll try to elucidate that point with this experiment dedicated to the making of Martian bread, more precisely a sourdough bread from ingredients directly produced in the station. The question of the flour production, and thus the cereal planting, is raised by our botanist Mario Sundic. The water, already present on the red planet in the form of ice, can be harvested and purified in consumable water. We will then attempt to produce bread through fermentation based on Lactobacillus isolated from our oral mucosa, and through fermentation with baking soda. If the experiment is successful, the only remaining issues will be the manufacturing of salt, and the high-temperature cooking of the bread…