Air Protein

Recognized under Tier 6 — Food Systems, Air Protein is a US company producing a meat-analog protein by fermenting hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria on captured carbon dioxide, using a process adapted from NASA-era research into converting astronauts' exhaled CO2 into food. The company has raised more than $100 million in cumulative funding, including a $32 million Series A backed by investors such as GV, and entered a 2023 strategic development agreement with agribusiness ADM to scale production toward a commercial-scale plant. Air Protein's platform produces protein without farmland, crops, or livestock, using only air, water, and renewable energy as inputs. That land-and-input independence is the company's direct relevance to Moon and Mars colonization: a protein source manufactured from recycled cabin CO2 and electricity offers a path to feeding a crew without soil-based agriculture or resupply from Earth.