Perfecting Cuisine for Future Mars Travelers
Scientists have engineered the ultimate meal for prospective Mars voyagers – a salad comprising of soybeans, poppy seeds, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and sunflower seeds. The constituents of the salad are meticulously selected such that they can be cultivated locally on Mars and are nutritious enough to satisfy the specific nutritional needs of male astronauts predominantly.
The Astronaut’s Dietary Requirements
Astronauts necessitate a specialized diet due to their higher caloric burn rate and demand for certain micronutrients, like calcium, as compared to the average requirement. Throughout history, there have been numerous investigations into astronauts’ dietary needs, but no substantial meal plans have been conceived for the usage of future space travelers until now. The story behind this recipe – and the supportive research – is detailed in the ACS Food Science & Technology journal.
Recycling in Space
The scientists kick-started their quest for the ideal meal with the help of computer models. Their objective was to identify food sources that were nutritious and required minimal water for cultivation. Additionally, the sustainability of potential ingredients was scrutinized. For instance, the selected plants should not have a high demand for fertilizers and should have components that could be recycled. The outcome was a vegetarian salad. Even though the salad turned out to be highly nutritious, it lacked certain nutritional elements. The researchers, therefore, propose supplementing these nutrients, possibly in the form of a chewable tablet.
Water Usage
The implications of the research are noteworthy because this represents the first recipe that future astronauts could grow locally. Consequentially, this marks a practical step towards potentially enabling longer trips to Mars. It states the importance of straitening water consumption, as water needed by astronauts will emanate mainly from Earth. Water and other resources are inherently scarce and expensive in space. The researchers also stipulate that it’s crucial for future astronauts to have access to fresh ingredients, especially during long space missions, to offer an alternative to the prepackaged food astronauts are currently required to consume.
The Salad Must Also Be Enjoyable
It goes without saying that, along with being nutritious, the salad must also be pleasing to the palate. To ascertain this, a minor experiment was carried out where the salad was prepared for four test subjects. Although one individual raved about it, the rest had a more muted response. This pilot experiment suggests that if in the future you’re to journey to Mars, based on this tiny experiment, the salad should at least be tolerable.
