Spirulina as a source of oxygen and food for astronauts. 🚀
Astronauts living aboard the International Space Station need the same conditions as us to survive: food to eat, water to drink, and oxygen to breathe. These supplies are shipped from Earth via cargo ships. But imagine you are an astronaut traveling to a distant planet in a spaceship from the future. You would be too far from Earth to receive supplies. How would you get what you need to survive? To help solve this problem, scientists are working on an experiment aimed at producing oxygen on the International Space Station. 🌌🛰️
Did you know that when humans breathe, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide? Plants do the opposite: When they convert light into energy (a process called photosynthesis), they absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Therefore, having plants in space could be a great way for astronauts to recycle air. The scientists' experiment consists of discovering whether photosynthesis works the same in space (under microgravity conditions) as it does on Earth. 🪴🌌🌿🌍🚀 
To do this, they have sent a special type of cyanobacteria called Arthrospira to the European Columbus laboratory on the space station, which carries out photosynthesis just like a plant. 🌱🔬 Once there, they introduced it into a device called a photobioreactor, a device used for growing microalgae. 🧫 Arthrospira absorbs the carbon dioxide that astronauts exhale and transforms it into oxygen. As an added bonus, this cyanobacteria is also called spirulina which is very nutritious and serves as a food source for astronauts. 🌟🍽️
Now, the big question is whether being in space can change the effectiveness of this microalgae in producing oxygen. Does being in a microgravity environment help them be more efficient or could it cause strange side effects? 🤔🌌 Can radiation from space help or harm the process? 🌠 Soon we will have the answer. 🚀🔍
Arthrospira, also called spirulina, is very nutritious! 🌱🍽️ Would you like to try it? Perhaps, in the future, you could be an astronaut traveling to another world breathing air recycled by microalgae. 🚀🌌
Fresh air for astronauts by " ESA " European Space Agency. 🌬️🪐🇪🇺
Source from the official website of ESA (European Space Agency) go see >>>
