DailyDirt: Eating Food On Other Astronomical Objects

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Jul 27th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Manned missions outside of low Earth orbit take a bit more planning since supplies are a trickier to deliver the farther out astronauts go. NASA is looking at a trip to Mars in a couple decades, and part of its preparations is creating edible items that are safe and nutritious for such a long trip. Here are just a few interesting stories about eating in other gravitational environments.

The menu for astronauts headed to Mars could include items like (vegan) pizza and fresh vegetables/fruits. The gravity on Mars should allow astronauts to chop vegetables and do some food prep that's a bit harder in a zero-gravity environment. [url]
Buzz Aldrin took a communion wafer and a vial of wine to the moon in 1969. Aldrin quietly read a few bible passages and consumed these items in the hours before he was scheduled to go for a walk on the moon's surface. [url]
A trip to Mars requires the shelf life of its food supplies to last about five years, but NASA's current astronaut menu only lasts a couple years. Lockheed Martin researchers are looking into a bunch of different (non-meat and non-dairy) menu options for a 2030-ish planned mission to the red planet. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: astronauts, buzz aldrin, food, mars, moon, space
Companies: lockheed martin, nasa

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

gnudist, 27 Jul 2012 @ 5:27pm

note: getting drunk in the vaccum of space is probably a bad idea.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Wally (profile), 27 Jul 2012 @ 8:08pm
  
  Re:
  Romulan Ale is illegal for a reason =P
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wally, 27 Jul 2012 @ 6:24pm

Clark Griswald
This article reminds me the type of work that Clark W. Griswald does ^_^
*watches National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation* :-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Quryous, 27 Jul 2012 @ 6:26pm

Long Lived Food
They should try some of our public school lunches, they have been serving out of the same pot for decades.

A "Little" more seriously: I remember working in a local university library about 30 years ago. There was a 50s era bomb shelter in there filled with "food". I and a number of other students used to take our breaks in there and over the years we sampled (OK, polished off) just about everything. That food was OVER 20 years old and still edible, albeit not the most tasty.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Michael Ho (profile), 30 Jul 2012 @ 11:33am
  
  Re: Long Lived Food
  Food preservation seems like a tricky thing to work on -- since to really test how long it lasts, you have to wait a loooong time.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- gnudist, 30 Jul 2012 @ 6:14pm
  
  Re: Long Lived Food
  Why was food in quote marks? Are there bomb shelter ration snobs now?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

jakyshain99, 17 Aug 2012 @ 4:08am

Food
Just before Xmas I usually get out the efficient old Delia Jackson prepare publication to examine out the dessert formula and amounts for the marzipan.Christmas cookie recipes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]