NASA Onboard for Creating 3D Food Printer for Mars Mission (Video)

NASA is onboard for creating a 3D printer--for food. The space agency has granted $125,000 to Systems & Materials Research Corporation to create of a prototype of a machine that could potentially "print" meals. What sort of food will it print, you ask? Apparently the first item on the menu is pizza.

The idea is that this printer could provide the food necessary on long-distance space travel. It also has the loftier goal of being able to solve increasing global food shortages, according to the Verge. Yet creating such a machine won't be easy. The printer will have to utilize ingredients that have a shelf life of years. Fortunately, that goal may have already been met.

"Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life," said Anjan Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, in an interview with Quartz. "The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years."

The printer itself would work by "printing" basic ingredients held in cartridges. The ingredients would include oils and carbohydrate powders, and would be rather unappealing in their unprinted forms. The cartridges could potentially be sold in stores and replaced once they run out--think of those coffee pods you get for your coffee machine.

Yet actually printing a steak will be a lot harder than it looks. That's why the researchers will start with something far simpler: pizza. The pie is a good candidate since it's separated into distinct layers, which will be relatively easy for the printer to recreate. It will first make the bread, then the sauce and then the toppings.

Currently, the printer is still at its conceptual stage. Yet the researchers will begin to construct it within two weeks. The prototype for the pizza printer was actually a simple chocolate printer, which is what earned them the grant from NASA.

If the printer is successful, we may get to enjoy pizza printed straight from powdered supplements in the future. Yummy!

Want to see the chocolate printer in action? You can check it out below, courtesy of YouTube.