Meat Was Just Produced In Outer Space For The First Time In History

With concerns growing that humans may not be able to produce enough food to sustain the entire population, out-of-the-box solutions have continually developed. The latest of those innovations has also broken significant ground in history, as meat tech company Aleph Farms has become the first to ever successfully produce meat in outer space.

Working in the Russian wing of the International Space Station, Aleph was able to grow one of their cell-based steaks without a massive strain of natural resources. It’s a major step in the scientific progress of being able to produce meat, no matter the environmental conditions.

Aleph’s technology works by taking cells typically found in a natural cut of steak (ie. fat, meat, support cells, and blood) and using them to grow meat under controlled conditions. They claim to be able to make a piece of meat in three weeks as a result of this process, although it is still relatively costly, at thousands of dollars per pound.

Photo: Aleph Farms

By producing this steak in space, Aleph proves that even if climate change and other factors prevent beef from being raised sustainably in the next few decades, science and technology can eventually still ensure that folks can have their meat, no matter how harsh the conditions are.

They’re still years out from the technology being scaleable or affordable, however, so we’ll have to wait a while before we can taste this extraterrestrial experiment for ourselves.