(The crumbs flew everywhere in the microgravity and could have got into the astronauts eyes or into the electrical panels, where they could have started a fire). Sebastian Marcu, born in Germany in a Romanian family, who has set up in Germany the Bake in Space company, hopes he found a way to creating an oven and a special dough that would produce bread without crumbles. He launched the new project earlier in May at the UK Space Conference. “Our mission will contribute to laying the foundations for the future of human wellbeing in space,” Marcu said in an interview.
Bread expected to be used in space
The Bake in Space team, lead by Marcu, is made of scientists, engineers and science communicators with several years’ experience in spaceflight. Currently based in Bremen, Bake in Space is working with the German Aerospace Center and food scientist from different research organizations. From this collaboration, OHB System AG, which makes equipment for use in space, will build the bread oven.It should be ready for testing by February 2018, before astronaut Alexander Gerst will start his mission on the ISS. OHB needs to find a solution to connect the oven by using a tenth of the power used by a standard oven on Earth, to comply with ISS limitations. NASA’s early solution was to pre-cut their bread into bite-size cubes and coat each in gelatin to keep any crumbs contained.
