For some reason, this is one of my favorite weird space-related topics. I don’t know if I would eat the stuff (at least, not enthusiastically), but it’s a fascinating bit of technology.
Can ‘Cultured Beef’ Ease Meat Industry’s Environmental Impact?
Maastricht University has developed “cultured beef,” which is created by harvesting muscle cells from a living cow.
As these cells are nurtured, they multiply to create muscle tissue, which is the main component of meat. Biologically, this tissue is exactly the same as one that comes from a cow, explained Mark Post, chair of physiology and team lead of the Cultured Beef project at the university.
Automate the process and package it into a robust “reactor” (our characters call them “meat vats”) on the scale of a dishwasher or smaller, and you have a source of meat for even small/early space settlements, one that requires neither live animals and their accompanying infrastructure nor expensive shipment from Earth.