Tag: Bioregenerative life support

According to one calculation, an adult needs roughly 300 to 500 average-sized houseplants to produce enough oxygen for their daily needs in a sealed environment. This highlights the immense scale required and raises the central question: how many plants to keep one person alive?

For decades, space agencies like NASA and ESA have investigated microalgae as a potent food source for astronauts, with Spirulina being a notable candidate due to its incredible nutritional density. When astronauts eat spirulina, they receive a concentrated and easily digestible source of protein, vitamins, and antioxidants that helps combat the unique health challenges of the space environment.

A single kilogram of dried spirulina, a type of cyanobacteria, has the nutritional value of about 1,000 kilograms of vegetables. This incredible efficiency is a key reason why do astronauts eat cyanobacteria, especially on long-duration deep-space missions.