Space technology adds a sparkle
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Space technology aids wine production on Earth
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20 December 2001
As the festive season gets underway wine drinkers on Earth are set to benefit from a technology under development to feed astronauts on missions to Mars. A company based near Barcelona, Spain is using a sensor, developed under a European Space Agency programme, to improve control over the production of the sparkling white wine, Cava. When humans eventually begin to explore and colonise Mars, the sensor will have a crucial role to play in controlling a process to recycle food and other consumables.
Wine is made by fermenting grapes with yeast to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. To produce good quality wine, it's important to control the growth of the yeast. "If we want to know how the yeast is doing, now we have to take a sample from each fermentation vat to the lab and count the yeast under a microscope," says Pilar Urpi from Freixenet, Barcelona. "The new sensor will tell us instantly at any time how much yeast we have," she adds.
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Microscope counting at Freixenet
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Sensors to determine the concentration of yeast or other microorganisms in a liquid have, until now, relied on measuring the intensity of light shone through the liquid. Such methods, however, have been inaccurate at high concentrations and when air bubbles or clumps of microorganisms are present. This new sensor overcomes such problems by measuring the electrical rather than optical properties of the fermenting wine to derive the concentration of yeast.
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Fermentation vats for the first fermentation process at Freixenet.
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From January, Freixenet will begin installing a sensor into each of its fermentation vats. The result should be a better-controlled fermentation process and hence improved quality of the wine.
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Probe of the Biomass Measurement System developed by NTE
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The sensor was originally developed as part of ESA's Melissa project, which is investigating ways of recycling food, oxygen and water on long manned space missions. The sensor controls the fermentation of ammonia into nitrate in the third of five compartments in the Melissa system.
Companies from all over Europe are contributing towards Melissa. NTE, a company in Barcelona specialising in the development of new technology for space, has developed the sensor. "When we work for ESA, we always end up developing some new technology because the requirements for space are very strict. We then go looking for terrestrial applications and often find several," says Jordi Elvira, project manager from NTE.
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Related news
| | • | Waste not, want not on the road to Mars (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/ESA9CV0VMOC_Life_0.html) | |
Related links
| | • | MELISSA (http://ecls.esa.int/ecls/?p=melissa) | |
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