This NASA-inspired protein powder is here to save the world and your gains
SUMMARY
Did anyone in your high school complain about gym rats and "show muscles"? Well, there's not really any such thing as show muscles in the military. Every fiber can make you more lethal, whether it's the biceps to curl a tank or artillery round that's about to be thrown into the breech, or the hamstrings to make it through a long patrol.
But think about how badly it will suck for the Space Force. They need to keep those muscles strong enough to beat Martians to death with hammers and wrenches on a moment's notice, but they need to fuel those gains with freeze-dried foods while working out in low gravity.
Luckily, a Finnish company has created a process that would let them make protein powder from almost any planet's atmosphere, and the Finns are scaling up the tech to sell guilt-free protein powder to all of us here on Terra Firma.
Solar Foods' technique was originally pushed by NASA and is now supported by the European Space Agency. The basic idea is to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, combine it with water as well as some additional nutrients, and turn it protein. The final product is a single-cell protein that can be used like traditional flour. It's 50 percent protein, up to 10 percent fat, and up to 25 percent carbohydrates.
And, it's carbon neutral. If there's a chance you'll be deployed to a desert in the next few years, be excited that your cooks could make about 4.25 pounds of Solein with a single 5-gallon jug of water. And there are essentially no land requirements, so it could be done even on small forward bases.
The entire process only needs a little infrastructure, some electricity, water, and carbon dioxide, so it could potentially be used at bases around the world or in space flight. (The European Space Agency specifically got involved in the hopes that the process could work en route to Mars.)
If you want to get your hands on this high-protein flour, you'll have to wait till 2021 and, even then, hopefully, be stationed in Europe. That's when and where the company plans to start its commercial launch with global access coming later in the year.
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