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Four Month Mars Food Study Wraps Up
After four months in a mock space habitat in Hawaii, participants in a study to determine how best to feed astronauts (HI-SEAS) on a mission to Mars emerged yesterday. A few days ago, the mission commander was interviewed in Astrobiology Magazine, noting the most successful foods: "There's also been a lot of really good cooked dishes. Some of our crew members are accomplished cooks, and every week there are different surprises. Some success meals were Russian borscht, Moroccan tagine, enchilasagna, seafood chowder, and fabada asturiana. Wraps work really well: we combine tortillas, different vegetables, Velveeta cheese, and sausage or canned fish into ever-changing combinations. This is actually in line with the success of tortillas at the ISS. In general, the dehydrated and freeze-dried vegetables are a real success. They're used on a daily basis in almost every meal."
The crew kept weblogs, and did other things than just sit around and eat: some studied robotics and they went on a few simulated EVAs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(chocolate_bar)
Velveeta cheese
That should quickly solve the overpopulation issue inherent to the one-way nature of the trip but will complicate logistics by requiring far greater amounts of toilet paper...
Really, they're thinking about Velveeta? For Burritos? On Mars? In an Airtight bubble?
I don't know if this is a regional thing or what but I absolutely devour beans, cheese and the like and don't seem to encounter the sort of apocalyptic digestive consequences that I see cited on where whenever someone brings up sturdy food.
What causes some people to have such weaponised digestive tracts?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Some success meals were Russian borscht ...
Even Russian robots don't eat borscht. They do better on electricity from solar cells. The engines may require a different diet.
Hold it, you were thinking of sending ugly bags of mostly water? Why? What is this, the Rube Goldberg Mars Exploration contest?
Never send a man to do a robot's job.
You normally go camping for four months at a time, and do all your shopping before you leave, smartass?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Why are they wasting time with all these studies? Just send Bear Grylls, he'll find some way to survive.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
20 minute delivery or its free.
Have gnu, will travel.
There are pretty substantial variations in intestinal normal flora between individuals (non-human cells in your body outnumber the human ones about 10-1, and many of them live in the gut), so that would be my guess. I'm not nearly enough microbiologist to suggest which organisms or strains are involved; but gut bacteria are a significant variable (since they vary based on where you were first innoculated with them, internal competition between organisms, antibiotics you've taken, etc.) that changes markedly faster than any human genetic or epigenetic component does.
While it may taste great, fabada asturiana is very famous for its farting production capacity (as most meals that contain beans). Now imagine that in a spaceship... yep, recipe for disaster!
Or a nifty way to top up the fuel tank :)
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
They should send up a copy of the book, "To Serve Man", just in case.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Gut flora.
Basically the gas from beans is produced by bacteria breaking down oligosaccharides that your digestive system can't break down as easily. You may have different bacteria or a smaller amount of the same bacteria than someone who is more gassy.
Jules: Do you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese on Mars?
Brett: No.
Jules: It's still called a quarter pounder with cheese because Mars was colonized by America and you know we had to have that shit our way.
Vincent: Also, a quarter pound burger is as big as your head but just don't ask where the meat comes from.
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -HLM
Day 1. Algae slurry.
Day 2. Algae slurry.
...
...
Day N. Algae slurry.
Day N+1 Algae slurry.
Lack of exposure, mostly.
If you don't eat something like that regularly, your body has a hell of a time trying to deal with it. If you haven't built up the right stuff to digest it, some of those starches cause some pretty unpleasant side effects. As a long-ish term vegetarian, I've definitely found I have to go through a periodic adjustment period to something new. And it can definitely be a little toxic.
It's like spicy food ... if you eat it all the time, your body can probably deal with it. If you don't, well, you might need some aloe the next day. ;-)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Yes I do... we also consider the two donkeys carrying all the supplies when we start out as a part of the meal plan so we dont waste space.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If you want to see something fun, Have someone eat RAW kidney beans or kidney beans not boiled but slowly soaked and cooked under very low heat.
They will turn into a Puke and poo sprinkler as it violently comes out pretty much every hole all at once. Most beans require cooking above a certain temperature and time to make them safe to eat.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Tortillas aren't used because they keep well. They're used because they don't generate crumbs. That's why they don't use bread - the crumbs would fly everywhere and get into everything, which is not only an irritant (a crumb could fly into an eye), but also dangerous if it plugged a sensor onboard.
Living in space has unique dietary requirements because of various biological effects and restrictions. Food can't become easily airborne for starters. It also much keep relatively well because you have limited cooking options (no stove), and the long term effects of recycled air has to be taken into account (imagine the stench of food hanging around for days at a time and even worse, propagating throughout the habitat).
In addition, one's sense of smell and taste is severely compromised in space, so food tastes blander.
And it's also important to figure out what foods can be grown in space and what are impractical to produce (e.g., cheese) and thus must be brought up. But if you're bringing food up because it's impractical to grow, you need to know if it'll still be "good" up there (taste, texture, etc), and how much one should bring to be satisfied (due to limited weight).
Yes, it's a giant camping trip. Except it's done with 4 other people in a space barely larger than an elevator. No "wide open nature" to help dissipate smells and other things.
we also consider the two donkeys carrying all the supplies when we start out as a part of the meal plan so we dont waste space.
You could do that with half the astronauts! Hell, there's no shortage of volunteers for a one-way trip.
Parts of the United States tried similar ideas to reduce the future numbers of poor people. These attempts are now considered to be an atrocity.
Just for the record, that's due to a protein rather than a carbohydrate, and the problem is not indigestibility but rather that the protein is actively toxic.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
That's not got much spam in it.
I pretty much lived on beans for a solid 10 years. I still eat a lot of them, but not twice a day every day. For a while, I had the most atrocious gas you can imagine. In both quality and quantity. Roommate at the time told me he was moving out if I didn't go see a doctor. Needed a roommate, so I did.
:*(
Me: "What can I do about having really bad gas all the time?"
Doctor: "Fart more. It won't hurt you."
I walk in the door, let one rip and state "Doctor's orders!"
Also, along with gut flora I think it has something to do with some people being weird about where they shit. There are a lot of people that just won't drop a deuce anywhere but a few "safe" locations, and they end up walking around holding it in. I stopped being so particular and went wherever I was when I needed to...unless it was the trainspotting bathroom or something....and I never have gas anymore.