Students of Unggul Del high school in Laguboti district, North Sumatra, have sent a new experiment on soybean fermentation in microgravity to the International Space Station (ISS), following their success in growing yeast in the space station last year.

It is the first attempt to make tempeh in outer space, with soybeans and yeast, the two main ingredients in soybean fermentation, being used in the experiment.

Under the Unggul Del ISS Project 2, a group of 10 students developed last October a robotic microlab containing the experiment before it was sent to the space station, with the help of NASA and California-based aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, in Florida on June 4.

The microlab has the ability to operate on its own and send readable reports in the form of digital images and data to earth three times a week. The data will be used by the students to analyze the tempeh-making process in a project that will run for 30 days at the ISS.

The students chose soybeans for the research as it was a traditional food originating from Indonesia that was also rich in calcium, iron, vitamin B and fiber, said Unggul Del’s ISS Project 2 team leader, Matthew Addrian.

Tempeh is easy to digest and contains antibiotics believed to be able to heal infections and prevent degenerative diseases.

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