Space Food Now

Mike R. of Lightning and Thunder asks: Let's say NASA reached the point of launching a spaceship to Mars, would you be willing to go on that voyage?
Yes, let's say that! I'll get my pitchfork, you bring torches and we'll chant toward Congress with spirited vigor! I dream that a Mars voyage will happen in my lifetime. Would I be willing to go? Not so much. I've had a taste of space adaptation during flight simulations, and while I know the sickness passes, I wouldn't volunteer.

That's just too long in a tin can without fresh lilies, rainfall, and green trees. It takes more stamina than I've got to be a pioneer. On a practical level, I'm simply not qualified to work in extreme environments (seriously, too chicken to even SCUBA dive) and would leave that to the professionals. Luckily, there never seems to be any shortage of people applying for the job of astronaut! I'm grateful for that, and I think history will continue to show them as the true heroes of our world.


Diane D. of Holy Molasses It Snowed In Florida asks: Why [study] nutritional requirements? Don't they already know what sort of food carries well in space? I thought they would have to grow some of their own along the way too.

Yes, they know what food "carries well" in space, having taken thousands of different items to the moon or into orbit now. Food scientists invented many interesting ways to both preserve food for long periods and also package them so as to conserve space on traveling crafts.

Menus are designed to fulfill the nutritional requirements of crews in terms of days, weeks or months at a time on the ISS. Of course, the Space Station is quite close to Earth, and re-supply vehicles are comparatively easier to come by than they would be on a mission to Mars, which might last 2-3 years.

The goal: Create food that lasts longer than 12-24 months.
The problem: Would it still taste good and would anyone actually want to eat it?
The deal-breaker: Mike asked if I would ever go on a mission to Mars, and all I can think of is having to eat 18-month-old re-constituted roast beef on the way home.

One Week Menu For a Shuttle Crew Member
Multiply by 104 weeks minimum

Imagine having to plan and store thousands of meals (3 per day x 6 crew members = 6570 per year), where each must have a 3-year shelf-life, to be prepared with rudimentary cooking equipment in a galley smaller than the front seat of your car, millions of miles from Earth.

You nailed another major concern, which has been a factor in exploration diets since scurvy was problem on the galleons of the high seas: fresh foods!

NASA's Cosmic Cuisine Fact Sheet specifies crops identified for possible growth in transit on long missions: lettuce, spinach, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, onions, radishes, peppers, strawberries, various herbs. From my reading, I see other space programs working with rice, potatoes, and various types of beans.

Lack of soil means committing to hydroponics –- and I love that the Wikipedia entry for this features a NASA researchers at the very top.

Stay tuned... I postponed what-all I had planned for this weeks' posts and got my brain cooking on space food; I'm now pondering writing a more detailed essay on how we got from Tang (largely urban legend) and paste-tubes (not used since 1965!) to modern preparations. Not sure why these items are still so alive in the popular imagination, but we should give NASA food scientists some credit by dispelling the myths... because the story of Food In Space is an utterly fascinating one...

Budget Cuts Killed the Radio Star

I belong to the BlogCatalog community, where I am the lucky recipient of continual invitations to other science blogs, and occasional comments or questions in my "ShoutBox". A fellow BC blogger recently lobbed this delightful grenade:


Great questions, Mike! Wow... bright, handsome, and politically correct to boot! Thank you for implying that women might make it to Mars, just as the Russians announce that they've set their watches back a century.

Didn't our mothers fight this battle already? I distinctly remember the smell of burnt brassiere in the morning. Of course, that was back in the 20th century when people actually cared about space exploration. Boo, hiss.

Do you think it's possible for people endure 6 months of weightlessness?
Yes, I do believe we will reach that point. Research and resulting counter-measures made it possible for routine long-duration stays in space, with far less ramifications to bodily health. A Mars voyage, however, might take nearly two years -- that's a long time in micro-gravity! Varied medical simulations are continually exploring how to ensure minimal impact on the immune system, sleep patterns, heart health, bone density and muscle fitness.

Other behavioral and procedural sims, such as the Mars500, are exploring the unique psychological stresses that might be factors on a long, isolated space flight. Still other teams in multiple nations are examining nutritional requirements, and which exercise equipment might be most effective.

The remaining major question mark is radiation in space. How will a human body react to un-blocked cosmic rays and solar flares? This remains to be seen, and the research on this, unsurprisingly, moves at a slower clip than other biological or psychological simulations.


Are we even there yet technologically to attempt such a voyage?
In some ways, yes. In some ways, no. So, no.

We have the knowledge to build a craft to withstand the journey, and we have the materials, if money was no object. Chemical rocket or plasma rocket? Shape and design of the craft? Hotly debated. Any ship aimed toward Mars would have to be gigantic, in order to carry the necessary fuel, crew, food, water, breathable air, medical equipment, space suits, tools, and of course a lander.

If you had asked me any of these question back in 1977 when Star Wars came out, I'd have chirped happily: sure, Mars will be a reality in no time! I'll be married to Han Solo by then and we'll be neighbors under a big glass dome! Give me a break, I was 8 years old. But even just five years ago, my response would have been far more inspirited.

Today... well, it's become clear that we're all at the mercy of a dispassionate public, and struggling to find the money.

Why don't they send people to the moon first to see if they can bring them back in one piece and then go for Mars?
I am also squarely on the Moon First team. While the processes of getting hardware and warm bodies to the lunar surface are complex and not what I would casually call a "piece of cake" -– I do think it makes sense to work out the kinks close to home before we risk the sheer distance to the red planet. Common sense, right? But I am in a shrinking minority.

NASA's leaders say that Mars is the main goal… but have yet to outline a clear path, and I am not sure why the "elephant in the room" is not a larger factor in the current discussions about Mars –- i.e. the obvious reality that we could not possibly launch a ship directly from Earth to Mars. The gravity of our planet is too strong, and a ship of the necessary life-sustaining size would make take-off impossible with our current rocket technology.

FICTION.

I think this is the part that comes as a genuine shock to many people who believe this has all been sorted out, and we're such a clever little heap of hairless apes that we can launch whatever we please so long as it's a sunny day in Florida. One of my relatives recently asked me how close we are to "warp drive"?

One solution is to assemble a ship in the micro-gravity of Low Earth Orbit, or the one-sixth gravity environment of our lunar satellite. Y'think?

Nerd Merit Badges

Well, this is not even close to being space-related, except that there are thousands of NASA workers who could stack up Nerd Merit Badges like flakes in a snow storm. So, I thought it was worth a post!

These funny velco-backed morsels of colorful embroidery include Spelling, Open Source, Full Stack and Boinged pats-on-the-back. Family Tech Support? Got it covered. One I will never earn, however, is the Empty Inbox!


At first glance, I could boast a handful of these... and send them suggestions. For instance, where are the "I can recite every episode of Star Trek TOS in order" badges? Or the "Browncoats Forever" and the "Paged Constantly at 3am" badges?

Other Possibilities:

• Quick-Draw Binary Translator
• I Can Count In Hexadecimal
• Monty Python Movie Sing-a-Long Champ
• My Pet Fish is Named "Wysiwyg"
• Schrödinger's LOLCat – reductio ad absurdum
• We Celebrate Pi Day on March 14

We also need a big one for those of us who watch movies about computer hackers and continually shout "That's totally impossible!" at the screen with great dramatic aplomb, and even greater indignation.

Honorable mention (a line of similar stickers perhaps?) for anyone who knew exactly what I meant when I said "TOS" above, anyone who reads XKCD and gets it more than 85% of the time, anyone who ever drove more than 1000 miles for a shot at watching a Shuttle Launch, and my personal favorite – anyone who used to carry a Microsoft Start-up Disk in her purse and used it more often than her lipstick.

Guess who that last one was.

Of course, shops like Zazzle and Thinkgeek are way, way ahead of me.

The Dream Rocket

Support The Dream Rocket! This very exciting project at the US Space & Rocket Center will be many years in the making, with it's grand finale in the summer of 2011.

"The Dream Rocket aims to connect art and education through a global initiative. The Wrapping of the Saturn V Rocket will recognize the power of global collaboration, and in turn, The Dream Rocket hopes to inspire individuals all over the world to recognize their power to pursue their dreams."

And yes, you read that right. They will be WRAPPING the entire 37-story Saturn V rocket in Huntsville, Alabama -- on the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s 1961 speech where he challenged the nation to pull together for the successful project of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."

The wrapping will consist of over 8000 panels representing dreams for our future and visionaries of our past. Schools, churches, professional organizations, non-profit groups and individuals all over the Earth are participating in its creation! In the first six months, nearly 40 US states and a dozen countries have submitted Dream Theme panels depicting space, health, fighting hunger & poverty, peace, community, science, technology imagination, recycling, conservation and other related ideas.


"What is my dream for a better tomorrow?"

If you would like to participate in creating Dream Rocket panels, you can purchase space in varying sizes, and recruit others to help you develop a dream theme to express! If you are the less artistic type, but have money to burn... you can become a sponsor instead. There are many students and scholastic groups who may not be able to afford the submission fee, and Dream Rocket workers are doing their best to match up donations with willing artists!

You can also make a simple individual contribution, and also keep up with Dream Rocket events through their Facebook fan page, Twitter feed or Flickr Photo collection. I got lost on the Dream Rocket Flickr site for ages, looking at the all the amazing submissions already lined up for panel wrappings!


"This rocket was designed and built as a collaboration half- a-million people and allowed our human species to venture beyond our world to stand on another -- surely one of the biggest dreams of all time. Enabling the dreams of young people to touch this mighty rocket sends a powerful message."
- Sponsor Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of NY Hayden Planetarium