Astronauts embarking on long-haul journeys in deep space can’t pack all the calories they will need in the form of freeze-dried food. They also can’t grow everything they’ll need, as onboard garden technology isn’t mature enough to keep them flush with fresh produce. Given those nutritional constraints, a group of engineers thinks future space travelers should pivot their diets.

[A] study published … in The International Journal of Astrobiology, scientists suggest that astronauts could look to asteroids for all-you-can-eat meals. They wouldn’t be chomping down on the rocks themselves. Instead, a chemical and physical process would break down an asteroid’s material, and the resulting organic components — hydrocarbon compounds — would then be fed to bacteria. After the bacteria were full, the astronauts could consume the collection of microbes — more appetizingly referred to as “biomass.”

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Dr. Annemiek Waajen of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who isn’t part of the research, thinks asteroid food makes sense biochemically, but that it will remain a curious idea for a while. “It is something that’s still a long way away,” she said. After all, scientists would first have to build an asteroid mining capability and a giant bacterial food factory…in space.

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