Amazing thought for the day: a group of scientists are currently working on a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s—and it involves astronauts cooking for themselves, and tending a greenhouse! What does a Mars-bound menu look like? Check it out:
Previous space missions have all had food developed for zero gravity, but because Mars actually has a little gravity, it enables NASA to consider major changes to the current space menu, including the possibility that astronauts could do some of their own chopping, cooking, even tending a "Martian greenhouse," which would provide the astronauts with a variety of fruits and veggies. A big concern is how to pack in protein in the all-vegetarian diet:
Already, Cooper's team of three has come up with about 100 recipes, all vegetarian because the astronauts will not have dairy or meat products available. To ensure the vegetarian diet packs the right amount of protein, the researchers are designing a variety of dishes that include tofu and nuts, including a Thai pizza that has no cheese but is covered with carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, scallions, peanuts and a spicy sauce.
Isn't it fascinating to think that a menu and eating plan like this is even an option so far out in space?
See More Photos: Cooking For Mars at The Wall Street Journal
Related: The Charlie Brown Phase: Why Spicy Foods Taste Better in Outer Space
(Image: Michael Stravato/Associated Press via The Wall Street Journal)
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From the caption on the last slide:
"It will likely take six months to get to the Red Planet, astronauts will have to stay there 18 months and then it will take another six months to return to Earth."
Incomprehensible.
Only six months to get there?! I want to go!!
What a colossal waste of money and resources. How about figuring out how to feed people down here first? Maybe I'm just a cantankerous old Luddite, but it seems to me that we should focus on the terrestrial for a while. We don't NEED to send anyone to Mars. I think we need to prioritize and spend our money a bit closer to home.
Jenniffer, yes, your a Luddite. The space program has brought many innovations into our lives, among them computers, satellite communications, GPS, artificial limbs, dialysis, MRI and cat scans, athletic shoes, battery improvements and many, many other things would be impossible if it wasn't for the space program, these things do much more to improve people's lives than plain "feeding people" does. Humans work best when exploring the edges, going for adventure. Life is not about surviving, but about living and using our full potential. Expanding the number of places where life thrives in the solar system (and in the future elsewhere) would be a hedge against catastrophes (both natural and man made) on the earth... ask the dinosaurs how well not going to mars worked for them
Besides, the earth does not have a food problem, there's plenty of food, we have a food distribution problem, in great part caused by tyrannical regimes in third world countries.
I'm not one to get mired in the politics of the comment section, but let's call a spade a spade here...
"In great part caused by tyrannical regimes in third world countries"...among other problems, including dastardly economic and security policies imposed by wealthy countries on developing countries. I'm not disagreeing with you that the space program has done really amazing things for humankind and I'm not saying I would stop funding it, but how we throw our money around here in the developed world absolutely does have an impact on how much people have to eat all around the world.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming of yummy space food!