NASA is funding a 3D food printer, and it'll start with pizza

[bananas]

Source: The Verge

NASA is funding research into 3D-printed food. As Quartz reveals, Mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor received a $125,000 grant from the agency to build a prototype 3D printer with the aim of automating food creation. It's hoped the system could provide astronauts food during long-distance space travel, but its creator has the loftier aim of solving the increasing food shortages around the world by cutting down on waste. The software for the printer will be open-source, while the hardware is based on the open-source RepRap Mendel 3D printer.

The concept is to use basic "building blocks" of food in replaceable powder cartridges. By combining each block, a wide range of foods should be able to be created by the printer. The cartridges will have a lifespan of 30 years, more than long enough to enable long-distance space travel. After proving his system works on a basic level by printing chocolate, Contractor will start his project within the next few weeks by attempting to print a pizza.

The pizza printer will first print a layer of dough, which will be cooked while being printed, before mixing tomato powder with water and oil to print a tomato sauce. The topping for the pizza will be a nondescript "protein layer." It's early days for the project, but if it's successful it would be a real milestone on the way towards a Star Trek-style Replicator.


Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/21/4350948/nasa-funding-3d-food-printer-pizza

[cyberswede]

1. 'The topping for the pizza will be a nondescript "protein layer."'

um...yum?

[baldguy]

3. I'm glad I'm not the only one to immediatly think "eew!"

[brooklynite]

24. Sounds like they'll manage to make a pizza as bad as Domino's...

[MindPilot]

28. I would imagine after being in space for a few years

Even a replicated Domino's would be pretty tasty.

[winter is coming]

35. They're aiming for Domino's. n/t

[high density]

38. I can no longer sit back...

...and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

[AndyA]

53. Isn't that what Papa John's already serves?

I know the owner of the company is full of sh!t, so you can't expect the food they serve to be much better.

[DJ13]

2. Finally

A real use for Soylent Green.

[baldguy]

4. "Tony's Pizza!"

Made with real Tonys!

[DJ13]

7. !

[Myrina]

5. So when someones says "tastes like cardboard"

... they may not be exaggerating??

[Ilsa]

6. Somebody, please call Ramsey. This sounds like a nightmare. nt

[aristocles]

8. Reminds me of Judy Jetson

[link:|

[Jokerman]

47. "Flying Pizza" from a punch card!

Funny how they anticipated that computers would evolve to provide everything but the input method would never change.

Great image!

[eggplant]

9. Soylent Green is People! n/t

[msanthrope]

10. Tea, Earl Grey, hot.

[1monster]

11. And thus begins the evolutionary journey of STAR TREK'S 23rd century Replicator.

[John1956PA]

30. I think it is Star Trek: The Next Generation, set in the 24th century, which has the Replicator.

Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek) :

The term "replicator" originated on Star Trek: The Next Generation, portrayed as a 24th century advancement from the 23rd century "food synthesizer" seen in Star Trek: The Original Series. The mechanics of these devices were never clearly explained on that show, but the subsequent prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise, featured a 22nd century version referred to as a "protein resequencer." Additionally, that ship had a "bio-matter resequencer" which was used to recycle waste product into usable material.

[1monster]

49. Okay. If you want to get technical and all that... Since Kirk and Piccard were only eighty

years apart, they could have shared a century at one point or another.

[Diclotican]

12. bananas

bananas

Star Trek anyone ? Cool, that some part of that universe might be reality in our own lifetime - even though I doubt people wil fly around in space crafts all over universe...

Diclotican

[cosmicone]

13. Are you sure this is not a spoof like "Onion"? n/t

[OneGrassRoot]

14. Holy crap, a Replicator has been my dream. n/t

[Godhumor]

40. You must watch this then (Love this comedic group)

http://thosearentmuskets.com/sketches/futurehouse.php

[OneGrassRoot]

41. hahaha!

That was GREAT!!!!



Thanks!

[pipoman]

15. LOL, with all of the concern over GMOs, imagine the terror of this??

[MindPilot]

29. Yeah, and you never know when a printhead will come flying off.

Those things can go for miles before crashing into someone's house.

[suffragette]

16. Reminds me of Firefly

Kaylee: [about Simon's birthday cake] Hope you like it. Couldn't get ahold of no flour, so it's mostly protein. In fact, it's pretty much what we just had for dinner.
[everyone laughs]
Kaylee: But I tried to get the frosting as chocolatey tasting as possible.

[Nihil]

44. Snap!

Exactly the right scene too!

[suffragette]

48. I looked around for a video snip of that scene to post, but couldn't find it

So the dialogue had to suffice. First thing I thought of when I read this.

[greiner3]

17. This is already in use;

McDonalds has been using it for DECADES!

[get the red out]

18. "After proving his system works on a basic level by printing chocolate"

Can I volunteer for "quality control" on the chocolate tests?

Seriously, this is very Star Trek!

[Posteritatis]

52. I read about one of the 3D printer concepts a year or so back...

...Its schtick is that it was meant to work with anything that was melty at a certain fairly low temperature, or anything that was easily moldable molten or not. To show it off they had it print things with play-doh, glue sticks, chocolate, cheese...

[bunnies]

19. Printable fucking pizza?!

This is how we're going to kill feed the world?! Yeah. Screw that "natural" food fit for humans shit. Geezus. I need some air.

[Posteritatis]

50. Because spacecraft have so much arable land. (nt)

[allan01]

20. re:NASA is funding a 3D food printer, and it'll start with pizza

seems someone beat me to the punch with the tea , earl grey hot clip!

[RobertEarl]

21. Really? A cook? That you can order to cook whatever?

As a single male this invention is certainly appealing. Imagine if all you had to do was program fresh ingredients into their places and a casserole of chicken divan were to be ready in minutes?

[kentauros]

22. Is it available for delivery?

I need to know to calculate the tip on $125,000.

[librechik]

23. pics of first products:

http://www.stylehive.com/bookmark/wooden-pretend-play-food-pizza-by-melissa-doug-907229

available now!

http://images.landofnod.com/is/image/LandOfNod/1103101%5FToyPizzaSet%5F06H?$share$

[Blue_Tires]

25. Wake me up when it starts to print something like coffee or wine....

[KamaAina]

26. We want bacon! We want bacon!

[lob1]

27. And everyone was worried about people printing guns.

The pizza will kill you faster.

[Agnosticsherbet]

31. Should this work, it is possible to put every farmer in the world on unemployment...

Just a factory make cartridges for the food printer and power plants to run them.

[Posteritatis]

51. "Just" make a global production and distribution system that dwarfs the fossil fuel industry? (nt)

[Agnosticsherbet]

57. while we are doing it we can return all of that farm land to its natural state...

while turning every bit of production of food to a few large intentional conglomerates.

I am surprised Congress has not mandated this yet. corporations must be having Corpororgasms over the idea.

[Posteritatis]

58. *facepalm* (nt)

[NickB79]

59. You still need raw materials, created primarily on farms

You think this thing pulls protein, fat and carbohydrates from the air or something? Last time I checked, you don't get protein from a solar panel or nuclear reactor.

You take food grown on a farm, grind it up and break it down into it's base constituents, and then reform it into a food-like substance via the printer.

If anything, this could allow even SHITTIER food sources to be consumed. Very few people would dream of eating roaches, for example, but grind them up into a protein powder and VIOLA! A protein source for the food printer.

[jpak]

32. I want me a printed Haggis

?&k=Haggis

Yum!

[winter is coming]

37. There are some natural laws Man was never meant to break.

Haggis is five of them.

[Inkfreak]

33. I have been waiting my whole life for this. n/t

[longship]

34. Where's the Cheese Whiz attachment?

Can hardly wait. I want one for that alone.

Quick! Where are my Triscuits?

(Avoid the Lutefisk attachment.)

[winter is coming]

36. And, for dieters, you can also eat a printed pizza!

You get the sort-of-faded ones from the dregs of the printing cartridge.

[Auntie Bush]

39. Oh boy, A plastic Pizza! Can't wait.

That pizza sounds yuckey.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

45. Domino's and Papa John's made billions on yucky plastic pizza.

Clearly there is a market.

[hobbit709]

42. Brings new meaning to the term "cardboard pizza"

[lunatica]

43. I want a printer that prints pot

[Ruby the Liberal]

56. Hahaha! Beat me to it.

If only they could figure out how to print a pint of scotch, I just might buy one.

[siligut]

46. The cartridges will have a lifespan of 30 years

Maybe in an oxygen and water free environment, flour, salt and baking soda could remain edible. I don't believe the crust will be able to use yeast, at least as it is, even in the freezer it slowly dies off. The protein layer has me curious, but if dried and then reconstituted with oil and water just prior to use, I can see it. This is going to be fun. NASA does have some concern for PR and this is very good PR.

[upaloopa]

54. Doesn't sound too appetizing. Instead of going

to the garden for some salad makings you print a salad made out of 30 year old powder.
You need to use sight and smell when you eat also.

[Ruby the Liberal]

55. Have ConAgra and Monsanto sued yet

Or are they using chemicals of their own for this "food"...

[Earth_First]

60. Fear not, I am sure they are busily working towards what you infer... nt

[CTyankee]

61. oh, dear god...

isn't most AMerican food gross enough as it is?

After you've lived in New Haven, there is no other pizza...

[Sunlei]

62. I don't want those short lasting proprietary Print Cartridges in my replicator :(

[Fire Walk With Me]

63. MMMMMmmmmm, "protein layer"....

(Homer Simpson drool effect)

A far cry from Pohl's CHON food factory, but it's a beginning.