What if the next big climate solution didn’t come from a lab or a boardroom, but from a student space farming challenge?

That’s exactly what happened to Morgan and Feodor, two students from Wageningen University who joined forces with others to rethink food for astronauts, and ended up creating a breakthrough that could change farming here on Earth.

Their idea, AstroGel, is a biodegradable, seaweed-based hydrogel designed to replace peat, the world’s most widely used plant substrate, responsible for massive CO₂ emissions and soon to be banned in the EU. What started as a concept for Mars missions could now help greenhouses transition to more sustainable practices.

In this special episode in collaboration with WUR, we explore:

• • How a space challenge led to a carbon-negative farming innovation
  • Why peat is both essential and destructive in today’s food system
  • The scrappy student journey from whiteboard sketches to industry tests
  • What they learned about failure, prototypes, and pitching under pressure
  • Why curiosity and bold ideas might be the missing ingredient in climate solutions