'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."

Re:ROLAND PIQUEPAILLE ALERT!

[RobertB-DC]

Don't read the overview. Just more ad revenues for him. (Info on Roland Piquepaille [thedarkcitadel.com])

Perhaps he's saving up for a trip to Mars, to enjoy the tres, tres haute cuisine.

I say we all pitch in, send him up, then cut off his web connection. Or his oxygen, whichever is easier to grab.

Does this mean...

[suman28]

What about plumbing and the rest of the infrastructure needed for maintaining this 'farm'?

Re:spirulina ?

[Rei]

Of course they'll be genetically modified. It's either that, or extremely heavily bred. There's no way we could take full-pressure domes covered in thick radiation shielding. We're going to need plants with a number of traits: high radiation resistance, the ability to take very thin atmospheres with higher-than-usual CO2 percentages, proper growth in low gravity, hydroponic or martial-soil adapted, low light, easy to grow and resistant to any diseases that may be carried (crop failure on Mars? ack!), etc, while still being nutritious.

NASA life scientists will probably do the engineering, though, at least at first.

Cart before horse

[Anonymous Coward]

This is either silly or a P.R. stunt. (Actually, it's both.)

The early missions to Mars will be supplied w/ food shipped from Earth. We may use crates of MREs, or even more every-day food, but the food won't be grown on Mars.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

First, MREs and other prepackaged foods can be prepositioned one launch-window ahead of time, and will survive with long shelf lives as stockpiles. Sufficient food for mission success (and even comfort) will be delivered prior to humans leaving Earth, and the crew will bring another complete set of rations, in case something goes wrong.

Second (and the reason the first is feasible) is that the necessary mass of food per person per year is not a huge fraction of the mass that needs to be sent. It is a lot of mass, and eventually you will want to begin production on the other side. But, there are other things that need to be transported fron Earth which account for a much larger fraction of the cargo shipments from Earth. Propellant will probably be made automatically on Mars even before humans arrive, and major concern of the early crews will be to ensure that the propellant production pipeline is prepared for the demand of later missions. Water supply is also a much, much higher priority than food production, since the hydrogen is so useful for propellant, since humans need it directly, since it is of intense scientific interest, and since many of our manufacturing processes rely on water. Greenhouses and cooking will start up along the way, experimentally and then eventually for a significant fraction of nutrition. However, there will be higher priorities to in the early stages than producing food on Mars.

Marvin fillets with Tabasco may be tasty, though.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Not a "Freedom Fry" thing, but...

[mbbac]

You may be forgetting that this is coming from the ESA. Secondly, this isn't traditional French food, but is instead haute cuisine -- they are very different.

Re:Oh well...

[Rei]

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"?

Re:Oh well...

[mbbac]

It's also the basis for most other modern cuisines.

Re:Oh well...

[rsynnott]

Most large European powers were fairly bad back then. America's actions weren't exactly to be commended, either; genocide of natives, anyone? If you're allowed discriminate about people because they weren't very nice in the past, then, erm, that more or less leaves you with the Dalai Llama. Maybe.

Re:Oh well...

[Dirtside]

Of course, all the people who acted like bastards during the colonial era are dead now.