Tech

Nasa astronauts’ food to get a taste-lift on top of added nutrition

Published

11 months ago

Farwa

In an attempt to meet the nutritional needs of astronauts in space, a New York-based company Air Company of Brooklyn founded a way to recycle astronauts-exhaled carbon dioxide in space to grow yeast-based nutrients for protein shakes designed to nourish crews on long-duration deep-space missions, reported Reuters.

The innovation of the company — which makes carbon-negative aviation fuel and is patented as AIRMADE technology — in food growth has put it in the finals of a Nasa-sponsored contest that encourages the development of next-generation technologies for meeting the food requirements of space crews.

According to the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Stafford Sheehan that “it’s definitely more nutritious than Tang,” while referring to a powdered drink that gained traction in 1962 by John Glenn when he became the first American to orbit Earth.

Kennedy Space Centers iconic Vehicle Assembly Building can be seen in this illustration. — Nasa/File — Kennedy Space Center’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building can be seen in this illustration. — Nasa/File

The contest Deep Space Food Challenge prompted Sheehan to modify his invention as a way of producing edible proteins, carbohydrates and fats from the same system.

Sheehan said he originally developed his carbon-conversion technology as a means of producing high-purity alcohols for jet fuel, perfume and vodka.

Taste and flavour of food

Sheehan, who has a doctorate in physical chemistry from Yale University, said: “The resulting single-cell protein drink entered in Nasa’s contest has the consistency of a whey protein shake.”

He compared the food flavour with seitan, a tofu-like food made from wheat gluten that has its origins in East Asian cuisine and was adopted by vegetarians as a meat substitute.

“And you get that sweet-tasting, almost malted flavour to it,” Sheehan said.

Sheehan said: “Apart from protein drinks, the same process can be used to create more carbohydrate-heavy substitutes for bread, pasta and tortillas.”

For the sake of culinary variety, he sees his smoothie being supplemented on missions by other sustainably produced comestibles.

The company was one of the eight winners which Nasa announced this month in the second phase of the competition with prize money of $750,000.

A final round of the Nasa competition is yet to take place.

Ralph Fritsche, space crop production manager at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said that human waste alone “is not the complete nutrient source that plants need to grow and thrive.”

It is a grave challenge for Nasa to keep the astronauts well-nourished in space. Since the International Space Station (ISS) launch, the crew aboard relies on a diet mostly of packaged with some fresh produce delivered on regular re-supply missions.

According to Nasa, ISS teams also have experimented with growing a number of vegetables in orbit, including lettuce, cabbage, kale and chile peppers.

As Nasa planned for space exploratory missions to Mars and Beyond, it has become important for self-contained, low-waste food production which requires minimal resources.

Advances in space-based food production also have direct applications for feeding Earth’s ever-growing population in an era when climate change is making food more scarce and harder to produce, Fritsche said.

“Controlled environment agriculture, the first modules we deploy on the moon, will have some similarity to the vertical farms that we’ll have here on Earth,” Fritsche said.

“We’re not re-inventing products,” Sheehan said, “we’re just making them in a more sustainable way.”

Education

The establishment of IT labs in Islamabad’s educational establishments

Published

12 hours ago

Farwa

SIFC was established to improve the ease of doing business for potential investors through a “Whole of Government”Approach”—achieving optimal horizontal-vertical synergy and facilitation by the Pakistan Army—and to attract investments from friendly countries in selected sectors through an empowered organisation that serves as a “single-window” platform for facilitation.

The children will learn the newest skills in these state-of-the-art IT labs, expanding their employment prospects.

These IT laboratories will be constructed in sixteen degree colleges spread throughout various parts of Islamabad.

Students will take six-month courses in artificial intelligence (AI), game development, data science, and block chain in these IT labs.

Approximately 1,000 students will have access to courses in the first phase, which is being implemented in response to market demand.

The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission has worked with esteemed universities such as NUST, National Skills University, COMSATS, and NUML to produce these courses.

The second week of this month will mark the start of these classes. For these courses, about 3,600 students have signed up.

Latest News

Pakistan launches first-ever lunar mission with iCube Qamar

Published

4 days ago

Farwa

China’s Chang’E6 spacecraft carried Pakistan’s first satellite mission to the moon, iCube Qamar, into orbit.

The Institute of Space Technology states that IST worked with Pakistan’s national space agency SUPARCO and China’s Shanghai University SJTU to design and develop the satellite ICUBE-Q.

The launch event was streamed live on both Chinese state television and the IST website.

Two optical cameras are carried by the ICUBE-Q orbiter to capture images of the lunar surface. ICUBE-Q has now been successfully integrated into the Chang’e6 mission after qualification and testing.

The sixth in China’s sequence of lunar exploration missions is called Chang’e6.

China’s Lunar Mission, Chang’6, will land on the Moon’s far side in order to gather surface samples and bring them back to Earth for analysis.

Pakistan would benefit from the mission since it will carry a Pakistan CubeSat Satellite, called iCube-Q, which was created by IST.

Small satellites known as “CubeSats” are typified by their uniform design and compact size. They are built in the form of a cube and are made up of modular parts that follow predetermined dimensions.

These satellites are regularly placed in orbit for a variety of uses and only weigh a few kilos.

Cubesats are primarily used to support space exploration education, technology development, and scientific research. Many different missions are carried out by these satellites, such as telecommunication, astronomy, remote sensing, Earth observation, atmospheric research, and technological demonstration.

CubeSats provide universities, research centers, and commercial organizations with the chance to engage in space missions and acquire important data for scientific advancement and innovation because of their small size and very low cost when compared to regular satellites.

They act as test beds for novel ideas and technology, opening up space to a wider spectrum of users and encouraging cooperation amongst members of the space community.

Latest News

The green colour of WhatsApp ‘angers’ some users.

Published

1 week ago

Farwa

After changing its display colour from blue to green, WhatsApp, which was before well-known for its blue motif, caused its users to hold divergent views.

New upgrades to the Meta app always spark a lot of discussion, regardless of how big or small the changes are.

Still, Meta-owned WhatsApp hopes that these modifications would “make it more accessible as well as easier to use” and offer a “modern, new experience” with relation to the updated display color.

A statement from the firm claimed that they had altered WhatsApp’s “looks and feels, including spacing, colors, icons, and more.”

Both iOS and Android users can now view the new WhatsApp update; the green tint on the latter has changed from the previous version.

However, iPhone users will notice that every display element, including the chat-list window and status bar, has changed with the recent design update. WhatsApp used to have a blue color scheme on iPhones.

Furthermore, the formerly blue links shared within the app are now displayed in green.

In addition, WhatsApp has made other improvements to improve its user experience outside of the color shift.