Food
Humans need food to survive- not only that, but the food can’t just be any food. It must be nutritious,
with a degree of variety and good enough taste. Food not only affects the physiology of the person
consuming it, but their psychology too. That food must also be practical- we simply can’t afford to send
supplies to Mars on a constant basis, so astronauts will have to find a way to make their food
renewable.
Various organizations have tried many different methods of supplying food for future planned missions
to Mars. Some methods apply only to the transit time to and from Mars, and some methods apply to the
future Mars colonies themselves, and some even cover both.
One idea is to continue to do what the ISS crew does- simply bringing prepackaged food into space with
them. However, prepackaged food would not have a long enough shelf life for a trip to Mars, with the
longest lasting packages currently only reaching two years. There’s also the issue of how much space it
would take up on a shuttle, and the more mass to the shuttle, the more it costs to launch it;
prepackaged food for such a long flight would take up more space than it’s reasonable to allot. The crew
eating these repetitive meals would also eventually become sick of eating it, and would stop eating as
much as they should, instead only eating what they need to survive. Time for eating should be
considered a positive experience, not a chore, and having a crew view meals as the latter would ruin
morale. Prepackaged foods would be more effective as a backup or emergency supply than the primary
food supply.
Another option being looked into is 3D printing food on Mars. While this would give astronauts a much
greater variety of what they could eat, and it would be more efficient and cleaner than cooking. A team
at Cornell University, led by Jeffrey Lipton, have developed a system that 3D prints food using
hydrocolloids. A flavour can be selected and nutrients can be added in, and the result is the same as
eating real food. Less waste would be created with this method as well, due to the lack of packaging.
However, the plausibility of this option on Mars or aboard a shuttle is different. So far, the printer
struggles with creating vegetables and meats, which cuts into an astronaut’s main diet. And a 3D printer,
plus all the hydrocolloids required to keep it stocked, would take up as much time and money as simply
sending prepackaged foods would.
The most often proposed option, and the most practical option, is growing food directly on Mars, but
that poses challenges. What can be grown on Mars, and how will the planet’s soil affect any plants that
are grown? Though most aspects of Mars’ soil are similar to Earth’s, Martian soil also contains
perchlorates, a chemical toxic to humans. However, Weiger Wamelink, an ecologist from Wageningen
University, has proven that food grown in simulation Martian soil is actually safe to eat, due to the
plants not absorbing the heavy metals found in the soil. Vegetables grown aboard the ISS were also
deemed safe to eat, via the Veggie plant growth system aboard the ISS, which is a box that keeps plants
at the ideal growing temperatures and nutrient levels. Another system for food growth on the ISS is the
Lada, a miniature greenhouse. Hydroponic growing has also been viewed as an option, in order to avoid