'Haute Cuisine' on Mars 295
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:Oh well... (Score:2, Interesting)
ROLAND PIQUEPAILLE ALERT! (Score:5, Interesting)
Iron Chef Martian... (Score:4, Interesting)
Chlorella! [wikipedia.org]
Nice idea, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
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."
Re:Just add water (Score:5, Interesting)
*chuckle* No, they really are thinking about growing the food.
The article was interesting (despite the fact that the ESA seems to be already picking out foods for a mission they don't yet have [wikipedia.org]), but I would have liked to know more about how they planned to grow food on Mars. For example, the soil samples seem to tell us all kinds of different things about the actual composition of Martian soil. Have we found a concensus on what materials we'll need to bring to grow plants. Last I heard, nitrogen was going to be the biggest issue.
The other thing I'd like to see is someone actually developing a Martian greenhouse design. However you make it, you'll want the greenhouse to be light, portable, and easy to setup. My current thoughts are that a transparent, inflatable tarp would do the trick. We'd first need to know what the minimum pressure is that the plants require before we design the tarp. Hopefully, they can survive in pressures similar to Mars's surface. That knowledge could then be used to develop a greenhouse that works like this:
1. The tarp would be planted into the ground. Depending on the pressure required, it could either be nailed in with stakes (how primitive, but effective) or a stiff ring could be buried into the ground, thus creating an airtight seal.
2. CO2 could then be pumped from the surrounding atomosphere into the greenhouse. Depending on the plant, a certain amount of oxygen may need to be initially pumped in.
3. The pump system should move air in and out of the tarp area. Oxygen would be separated out, and replacement CO2 would be pumped from outside.
So far, so good. But then what about solar energy? Does enough energy reach Mars' surface to support these plants? Does artifical lighting need to be added? (I guess that's why they went with potatos. Little to no light necessary.)
Re:Just add water (Score:3, Interesting)
I've commented about this in the past, but here's a quote from the Wikipedia article on Elon Musk [wikipedia.org]:
In 2001, Musk had plans for a "Mars Oasis" project [spaceref.com], which would land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith. He put this project on hold when he discovered that launch costs would dwarf the mission development and construction costs for the project, and decided to work on lowering launch costs by founding SpaceX.
If I recall correctly, he actually hired a team of engineers and scientists to do a feasibility study, and I'm betting they put together at least some preliminary designs. Hopefully we'll see him return to this project once he gets launch costs lowered some.
Re:Just add water (Score:4, Interesting)
As for light, Mars gets half the sunlight we do on Earth; plenty of plants on Earth grow in partial shade.
Other planets (Score:2, Interesting)
On other planets... like Earth?
Re:Other planets? (Score:2, Interesting)
Other possibilities might be orbital greenhouses around venus, earth or mars. Much further out and the insolation amount is questionable but possible with mirrors to focus more energy. Of course, other than earth orbiting greenhouse, these are even more unlikely than the moon.
Re:But you still need organic chemicals (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends on the plant. Tomatoes are in fact easy to grow in water enriched with the right stuff. Corn is extreemly difficult. Note that I said enriched water, not pure water.
Loss should not be a big deal, as this is intended to replace ~40% of the food on a mars mission, and that other 60% can be recycled into more.
In any case, that organic matter in earth soil came from other plants - it wasn't always there. If we are careful we should be able to likewise enrich Mar's soil.