Nasa-Backed 3D-Printed Cookies Turn PET Into Food
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- Nasa funded the method through its Deep Space Food Challenge, which invited technologies for feeding astronauts on long space missions.
- Dr Lahiru Jayakody led the project at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where the disc-shaped product reportedly received high marks for aroma.
- The team has not eaten the cookie and is awaiting institutional approval for human testing, presenting the work at the American Chemical Society meeting in Chicago on Monday.
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is broken down with water and oxygen at high temperature and pressure, creating smaller carbon-rich molecules.
- Genetically reprogrammed yeast converts those molecules into proteins, fats and other nutrients that are mixed with starch and shaped with a 3D printer.
- The production process currently costs $60 per kilogram; improving yeast efficiency and scaling production are expected to reduce the cost.
Why it matters: For astronauts facing a three-year Mars round trip, the project targets feeding crews with materials already on hand. The immediate constraint is practical: the cookie currently costs $60 per kilogram, and human tasting is still awaiting approval, so the technology remains an untested prototype rather than a meal.
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