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'Haute Cuisine' on Mars
Roland Piquepaille writes "If you're lucky enough to be a crew member of one of the next European Space Agency (ESA) long-term missions, you will have the choice between eleven new delicious recipes, such as 'martian bread and green tomato jam' or 'potato and tomato mille-feuilles' when it's time for dinner. In 'Ready for dinner on Mars?,' ESA says that these recipes will use fresh ingredients grown in greenhouses built on Mars colonies or other planets. The future astronauts -- should I write 'farmonauts'? -- will grow potatoes, onions, rice, soya or lettuce. And it's interesting to note that the new menus were elaborated with the help of Alain Ducasse, the French chef who has almost as many stars in the 'Guide Michelin' as there are planets in our Solar system. This overview contains more details and references about eating in space."
Unfortunetly, all plants grown on Mars will still be freeze-dried before eaten.
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"I HATE midichlorian stew!"
"Shut up and eat, kid. You want to grow up to be big and strong like your father, don't you?"
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Once you pick the antennas off, and drain all the green ichor, the stuff's pretty good! Looking forward to the first Martian fast food restaurant to open "Barsoom King", with its slogan "Take me to your eater!"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
-- should I write 'farmonauts'? -- No... you should not. Some things can not be un-read.
Don't read the overview. Just more ad revenues for him. (Info on Roland Piquepaille)
Chlorella!
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
And it's interesting to note that the new menus were elaborated with the help of Alain Ducasse, the French chef
No specific offense to the French intended, but as a vegetarian, I can think of much better choices to have designed the menu (not to mention, not everyone likes real French-style food).
Indian food, for example, has a truly huge variation of veggie-only dishes, as does Spanish (though on that, I'll admit, my experience with it involves mostly South-American-Spanish, not Southern-Europe-Spanish food). Greek has a decent selection as well, and you replace the lamb with falafel for most of the rest.
But French? The French have a reputation for taking perfectly good, otherwise healthy and veggie safe foods, and drenching them in lard. Wrapping them in thinly sliced meat. Stuffing them with unnameable mollusks and cephalopods.
Not the best choice, IMO.
I hope that these fancy new meals do not end up displacing "comfort foods" such as may have previously been on the menu.
As Martha would say, "It's a good thing."
Theory and practice are the same in theory, but different in practice.
'martian bread and green tomato jam'
But the book isn't named How to Cook For Humans on Mars, it's named How to Cook Humans on Mars!!
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
What about plumbing and the rest of the infrastructure needed for maintaining this 'farm'?
French food IS extreamly unhealthy, but most food there is common peasant food which is a lot more healthy and light.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
This post may seem like flamebait, but I really do hate the French, so i feel I'm justified
What sort of argument is "I'm a bigot, so I shouldn't get modded down"? What's next - +5 for someone saying "Before you mark me as a troll, understand that I really do hate Jews"?
Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?
You were so close to the answer. Even used the correct word: hydroponic. Yet you still missed it.
Plants just need water and nutrients to grow. They do not care much about the soil, so long as the roots get enough (but not too much) water and nutrients. Tomatoes have been grown in just water and fertilizer for years! No soil needed at all. Most plants are more picky than tomatoes, but many grow in gravel sprayed with water and fertilizer.
This is old by now. Tomatoes were first grown in the lab this way in the 1930s. (There are claims to have done it before then, but they are hard to pin down) Though tomatoes are particularly easy to grow with hydrophonics.
I'm not sure what nutrients potatoes need, but they prefer sandy soils, which generally doesn't have much in the way of nutrients. Most of the other plants in the article seem to have been selected in part because they don't need much in the way of nutrients.
In short, we know we can find CO2. We can crack that to get a little O2 to start things out. We are pretty sure we can find water. The amount of fertilizer needed is small for many plants, and thus trivial to bring. (Not to mention it is a by-product of digestion once humans are nearby) The only worry is nitrogen doesn't seem to be plentiful. It could easily end up that getting the nitrogen is the hardest part. Depending on how the greenhouse needs to be designed of course.
Of course, all the people who acted like bastards during the colonial era are dead now.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased