Food Beyond Earth: What Space Can Teach Us About the Future of Food

Drawing on his work in space research and his experience as commander of the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation, Angelo Vermeulen explores how extreme environments change how we think about food. Bioregenerative life support systems such as the European Space Agency’s MELiSSA program circulate matter through microorganisms, plants, technological infrastructure and the inhabitants themselves. Waste becomes a resource, making humans active components of a deliberately constructed ecology. Yet food cannot be reduced to metabolism alone. During HI-SEAS, cooking became a space for creativity, cultural exchange and social cohesion. Bringing these perspectives together, the talk examines food as both biological necessity and social infrastructure, and asks what designing food systems beyond Earth can teach us about circularity, resilience and the future of food on our own planet.