October 12, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Alternative protein pioneer Micro Meat and Orbital Assembly (OA), a developer of space-centric business parks with variable gravity capabilities, have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop systems to produce cultivated meat in space. 

Did you know it costs as much as $10,000 per pound to transport meat into space? 

“We could produce fresh meat in space at a much lower cost than flying prepared food there because meat is mostly water, and we can easily reclaim the water in space,” explained Vincent Pribble, COO, Micro Meat. “So, when you look at the price of launching all that water from Earth to orbit, it’s just not cost effective.”

Based in Mexico, Micro Meat developed a highly scalable proprietary scaffold system to cutivate meat that has the same nutrient and taste profiles of animal-based counterparts. The scaffolds are made of 3D, biocompatible, and biodegradable materials designed to support the growth of cells and tissues by providing an exponentially expanding surface area, which the company allows food manufacturers and brands to white label to produce cultivated meat to specifications.

Joining with Micro Meat is Orbital Assembly. (This is wild!). OA is a leader in designing, constructing, and operating large-scale, sustained, habitable structures with gravity on-orbit, in cislunar space, and throughout the wider solar system.

The company’s first Pioneer-class station, which will be operations in just a matter of years, will be the first on-orbit business park with variable artificial gravity (up to -0.5g), which will support the health of its occupants while enabling novel research and manufacturing processes that wouldn’t otherwise be possible in a microgravity facility nor on Earth. Once operational, theses stations will be the first and largest hybrid space stations and free-flying habitable, privately operated facilities in orbit.

These Pioneer-class stations will eventually be leased to a mix of private, academic, commercial, government, and industrial customers who would gain a range of on-orbit capabilities including manufacturing parts on demand from aluminum, steel, plastics, or other materials, or could be available for space tourism.

Under the agreement, Micro Meat will install its proprietary meat cultivation equipment aboard OA’s Pioneer-class space station to be a source of food for station personnel, giving Micro Meat the ability to raise the efficiency of its production process, resulting in a more scalable protein production system on Earth.

“We are expecting it to be a two-and-a-half-year project and hope to take what we learn in space and rapidly apply it to our earth-based production systems,” said Pribble, adding that the company is prioritizing the space-based development of its technology because it can provide much greater value in space as long as the cost is too high for the mass market on Earth.

Micro Meat co-founder and CEO Anne-Sophie Mertgen added that the company planned to leverage the OA partnership to accelerate commercialization of its technology on Earth.

“Our scaffolding technology is a game-changer,” said Mertgen. “It’s going to allow a level of scaling in cultivated meat production unlike anything that currently exists. In three years, our goal is to be producing a ton of meat in 30 days on earth. We know we can get there with our design. This new partnership with OA in space will help us get there faster.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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