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Harmonious Ecosystem in Space

Published onMay 18, 2020
Harmonious Ecosystem in Space

Project Elenee was founded on the principle of creating an enjoyable ecosystem in space. In the present time, space is believed to be the ultimate frontier. To embody the complexity of the frontier, we implemented vertical farming practices to nourish our galactic pioneers in a harmonious ecosystem.

I imagine a new ecosystem where humans and plants will symbiotically exchange atmosphere and nutrition in a sustainable cycle. In order for flowers to bear fruit, astronauts paint each flower with pollen. In exchange the astronaut is rewarded with strawberries. Personally pollinating the strawberries connect the astronaut to what they consume. I feel that this will intimately connect astronauts as they paint each flower into fruit. 

We took the environment of space into consideration into creating our product. Vacuum is a readily available environment found in airlock. We find that dehydrating strawberries in the vacuum of space to ~16% moisture content would create a similar property of honey. The flavor of fresh strawberries would be preserved for many months to come as crops are cycled on the ISS.

Our recipe utilizes indoor grown Mara des Bois Strawberries, Sugar, and Malic acid. Malic acid is what makes Strawberries and Apples tart.

The vision of the product is to bring a portion of the vision into the hands of people by creating an environmentally conscious consumer product. I believe that thoughtful food is the perfect bridge to close the gap between engineers and the consumers. My hope is to capture the interest of everyday people into the idea of space travel.

Our future development is to implement enzymes found in honey to increase the shelf life of products naturally. The idea is to design food to be self sanitizing. I believe that this would create a last line of defense for food safety.


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