A multi-year deep-space mission cannot resupply fresh food, so crews rely on a closed-loop life-support garden: aeroponic racks that mist plant roots with nutrient solution instead of soil, algae or cyanobacteria photobioreactors that scrub CO₂ and release oxygen, and cultured protein bioreactors that grow meat cells without an animal. This scene shows all three side by side inside a habitat module, with the crew's meal variety feeding a simple morale score.
On the ISS, astronauts have reported "menu fatigue" after just a few months of a repeating meal rotation — one reason mission planners treat crop and flavour diversity as a psychological life-support system, not just a nutritional one.
A cutaway of a spacecraft habitat module showing three linked closed-loop food systems: aeroponic crop racks, a glowing algae photobioreactor, and a cultured-protein tank, joined by a live nutrient / gas recycling loop.
Aeroponic misting, algae-driven oxygen production and cultured-protein bioreactors together replace resupply on long missions, while meal diversity feeds a simple crew-morale score.
Raise grow-light intensity to speed plant growth and oxygen bubbling, adjust the mist interval, pick a crop-diversity level, and toggle the closed-loop flow animation to see how each choice shifts the stats.
A single litre-scale algae photobioreactor can produce roughly the daily oxygen needs of one person under the right light and CO₂ conditions — a key reason algae are studied for long-duration life support.