> The Silk Road once connected China to the rest of the world. Now,
> Chinese researchers propose that silkworms could provide a lifeline
> for long missions to outer space by serving as meals for astronauts.
Eating bugs which eat plants is less efficient than eating plants
directly. Eat beans, not bugs!
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/113/2 The Silk Road once connected China to the rest of the world. Now, Chinese researchers propose that...
... Well, if it is efficiency you are hell-bent on optimizing for, growing algae is more efficient than growing beans. I think the point was to keep astronauts...
... I'm not sure. I used to be a big fan of algae and/or cyanobacteria vats. My theory was that you needed large masses of water for radiation shielding...
ong missions to outer space by serving as meals for astronauts. ... This is only true for useful applications if you have the same digestive capabilities as...
... Fascinating. This would be useful technology. As to turning the paste into palatable treats, I suspect that technology already exists. I've seen in the...
... I wonder what good candidate plants would be. Potatoes would be a great staple, because they're easy to process into a wide variety of tasty foods....
... Photosynthesis in the field is somewhere around 3% to 6% efficient at converting incident sunlight into chemical energy. If you could convert electric...
... Yes, pretty much what I was thinking. ... It's not a question of water, it's a question of nutrient output/water output. I have no idea about the...
... I see. I still think water is an important issue. In the inner solar system, there are plenty of places with lots of sunlight energy--but there are...
... Photosynthetic microbes are certainly a simpler, and probably more robust technology initially than the technology I outlined earlier. I think that a...
G'day, ... Given existing microbial diversity I think you'll find there are existing species with high nutrient content that are also radiation resistant. You...
... I had thought this was possible, but I didn't want to make assumptions, because my knowledge of microbes is limited to generalities as I'm a protein guy....
... Almost certainly, though you won't be able to avoid an elevated mutation rate (I imagine you'll keep some chilled stock in a well protected area to allow...
... Tank sterilization may even be part of regular maintenance. To maximize sunlight gathering area, you're going to have a lot of window area with a thin...
... I just had a crazy thought...there are already microbes in the human digestive system. Perhaps we can skip the whole concept of "food" altogether. Step 1:...
... Laugh. Cute, but the required power level would cook you from the inside out, since you need light at somewhere around 15x your metabolic rate (might get...
... Now I find myself wondering if you can create electrosynthetic bacteria or plants with a higher efficiency. I doubt there's any naturally known, but given...
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:00:44 +0100, Anthony Jackson <ajackson@...> wrote: [...] ... Photosynthesis has approx. 6% efficiency at converting light energy to ...
... I was also thinking maybe you need a two step reclamation system. Step one has modern water treatment style microbe tanks to break down the human waste....
... Particularly considering the fact that darn near every cell in existence harnesses a electrochemical gradient (partly a voltage gradient, partly a...
G'day, I have got that "bell ringing in the head" thing happening taht they have found examples alreazdy, but can't track done my references to it. I don't...
... have found examples alreazdy, but can't track done my references to it. I don't think its implausible. Main reason I doubt examples exist is the fact that...
I know that there are bacteria that grow conducting filaments that contact metals or other substances in their environment to use them as electron acceptors...
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