Yeast-driven biomanufacturing in space: synergizing cellular agriculture for sustainable extraterrestrial habitats

Human expansion into deep space necessitates sustainable life support. Current prepackaged food systems face nutritional, logistical, and psychological limits on long missions. Cell agriculture, particularly yeast-based biomanufacturing, emerges as a pivotal solution. Yeast’s genetic flexibility, metabolic resilience, and tolerance to extreme conditions make it an ideal chassis for in-situ food and nutrient production. This review systematically explores yeast’s application in creating closed-loop space food systems, analyzing its progress, challenges, and future potential for enabling sustained extraterrestrial presence.