MillenniumPost
World

NASA draws up menu for Mars mission

Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1950s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the origins of US space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking. Their mission: to build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.

The menu must sustain a group of six to eight astronauts, keep them healthy and happy and also offer a broad array of food. That’s no simple feat considering 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. Imagine having to shop for a family’s three-year supply of groceries all at once and having enough meals planned in advance for that length of time.

‘Mars is different just because it’s so far away,’ said Maya Cooper, senior research scientist with Lockheed Martin who is leading the efforts to build the menu. ‘We don’t have the option to send a vehicle every six months and send more food as we do for International Space Station.’

Astronauts who travel to the space station have a wide variety of food available to them, some 100 or so different options, in fact. But it is all pre-prepared and freeze-dried with a shelf life of at least two years. And while astronauts make up a panel that tastes the food and gives it a final OK on Earth before it blasts off, the lack of gravity means smell and taste is impaired. So the food is bland.

On Mars though, there is a little gravity, allowing NASA to consider significant changes to the current space menu. That’s where Cooper’s team comes in. Travel to Mars opens the possibility that astronauts can do things like chop vegetables and do a little cooking of their own. Even though pressure levels are different than on Earth, scientists think it will be possible to boil water with a pressure cooker too. One option Cooper and her staff are considering is having the astronauts care for a ‘Martian greenhouse’.
Next Story
Share it