PhotoBioreactor

If we are to travel farther for longer, it will also be important to generate our own sustainable supplies of food and oxygen in space. The German Aerospace Center DLR experiment PhotoBioreactor on the International Space Station includes algae to convert carbon dioxide to breathable oxygen and edible algae in space.

The algae selected for this experiment, chlorella vulgaris, is single-celled, spherical and can be cultivated in pumped loops to produce oxygen and edible biomass from carbon dioxide and water. It requires regular nutrients to support its growth, as well as exposure to light.