So I hear there's talk of de-orbiting the ISS in 2016. This could totally kill my idea to use any extra room on-board the Station to house a small, automated McDonalds outlet!
Actually I never had that in mind. But the whole ISS de-orbiting thing has made made me a bit pensive on the subject of humans in space.
Namely I ask: why do our nationally -- and in the case of the ISS, "internationally" -- backed manned space flight projects always make you feel like a 3 year old dude who gets underpants for a birthday his parents sold as a Toys R Us extravaganza?
I'd even say the same about the Apollo program: that was like a 3 year old dude getting underpants for his birthday, too; it's just that the party was at 6 Flags.
I don't know, but I figure maybe the money and plans will emerge to keep the ISS in a safe orbit. Then like some effort to "recycle" an old U.S. public school building, the ISS will see half of itself sold for private use and the other half demolished (better termed as "de-orbited").
Of course, I am also a firm and reasonable believer in speculation regarding a "shadow" space program maintained by the U.S.
So, perhaps 2015 will roll around and we will, instead, watch as yet unseen Air Force-developed space vehicles regularly dock with the ISS, thereby potentially giving the structure a much higher on-going occupancy level and a new nationally-backed lease on life.
Hey, we just landed on Mars and I sure am ready to grow some wheat and soybeans!!
Actually, I am kidding on that one, sorry NASA.
Farming of any sort would be the absolute last thing I'd want to be doing if I landed on Mars, the Moon or any other body in the solar system. Also farming would be the last thing I'd want to watch astronauts on Mars, the Moon or any other body in the Solar System do from here on Earth (if NASA or private organizations planning such inter-planetary trips and human outposts are seeking to maintain any kind of Earth-based audience for these efforts, then they should take note).
I can almost guarantee you that NASA astronauts, Russian Cosmonauts, Chinese Takonauts and private space visitors would say the same thing (But the astronauts and their like don't want to speak up about it lest they rub somebody in charge the wrong way and lose their place in the schedule)
So what is my "work-around" when it comes to feeding astronauts on missions that
extend for say, two years?
Well, let's look at how I, an average joe of 6'1" and 170lbs eats day-to-day down here on Earth. I frankly subsist quite happily on the following: Met-Rx bars, Cliff bars, peanut-butter-on-tortilla sandwhiches, filtered water, coffee, and dried fruit.
Yes I am definitely more "eat-to-live, than "live-to-eat." But the thing is, I've been eating like that for probably the last 15 years!! And it doesn't really bother me. My health is good according to my physicians and I am quite physically active.
So let's say I am going to Mars for a two year round trip. I'll need approximately 3 meals a day x 730 days. Ok so around a total of 2200 meals at say 700-800 calories a piece for a total of 2100-2400 calories a day. Let's be on the safe-side and bring 3000 meals and lets bump the total available calories per day to 3000-3500, since I'll presumably be a busy astronaut down there on the red planet.
Yes, we'd have to launch quite a few food bars, jars of peanut butter and flat bread, coffee grounds, raisins and so forth to cover my nutritional needs and those of other astronauts. But you know, that would beat the heck out of rolling the dice and suiting up to farm soybeans in some inflatable contraption on "Eagle crater." And I doubt it would be any more or less expensive to do.
So, I have to say that I am not too keen on the idea of farming on Mars or the Moon, at least not in the initial years of human ventures to those planets.
Nice fresh, hot Pizza in space. Should be a cinch right?
Let's say we're in orbit and we're hungry. We're not looking for Chicago-style Pizza up here. We'd settle for a couple of DiGiorno pies from the local Ralph's.
Just rocket 'em up on the next resupply ship and we'll throw them in the oven on the ISS. 25 minutes later we're all set...
This sounds good. In fact its an oft-expressed dream of astronauts to have a decent slice of pizza (or a cheese burger) while aboard the ISS or shuttles. But of course, *there are no ovens or grills up there and microwave contraptions and/or boiled water just don't bake a decent pie.
Not wanting to put the ISS through an expensive remodeling job involving marble counter-tops and Viking stoves, we at spacemeals.com say that the pizza-in-space dream whould be made a reality another way. Perhaps we should consider baking pizza (and grilling burgers) outside the ISS and the shuttles.
After all, when you are exposed to the sun up there in orbit you are apparently facing temperatures of 123 Degrees Celsius or about 250 Degrees Fahrenheit. 250F is, in fact, ideal for slow cooking as one might do with Barbecued Ribbs (Another idea! ...MMM...Space Ribs...)
In the case of pizza, we'll just design a small, sealed solar oven that protects food contents against solar radiation while --if necessary -- baking them at upwards of 400 degrees farhenheit using a relector apparatus. It shouldn't weight more than a couple of pounds at most and we can clean it out and use it on the next mission.
We load the tethered "oven" with a few pizza pies and release it to "drag" along-side the ISS/Shuttles, outside in the orbital sunlight for an hour or so -- the "orbital oven" (I like that name) will have remote thermometers and remote internal cameras so we know we aren't burning the crust. Then when the pizza's done, we reel it back in. Once we get it out of the air-lock, it's pizza time.
We are totally serious, do not laugh!
(*Correction: As of July 28th 2009, I learned that the ISS does in fact have an oven of sorts enough to accomodate a small 6 inch diameter pizza pie. An article called, "What Do Astronauts Eat in Space," by Claire Suddath and publishd in Time Magazine on July, 20 2009 mentioned this and that The Pizza Hut Corporation had made a go of delivering pan-style, 6 inch, designed-for-space "Pizzas" to the ISS aboard Russian built Proton rockets. I don't know if the fact that I missed this news in May, 2001 indicates a poor investment in "post" research on my part (it does) or that Pizza Hutt's space-pizza-delivery-campaign met with a rather muted public response (it might have); maybe everybody in the U.S. was still in shock that George W. Bush was somehow occupying the Oval Office at the time? ;] Anyway, grilling/baking in outer space using solar radiation while in Low Earth Orbit is another possible means to cook in space -- that concept, which I also floated in this post -- is something I will proudly stand by :P ).
We think the above is an impressive statement for NASA to make considering that the "water" in question was recycled from astronaut urine!
On May 21, 2009, NASA gave Astronauts permission for the first time to sample the water produced by the "Water Recovery System" -- a 250 million dollar apparatus delivered to the International Space Station ("ISS") last November.
The aforementioned "System" recovers water from urine (itself typically 95% water) deposited by crew members in the "Waste and Hygiene Compartment Toilet" on the ISS. And it also recovers moisture from the Station's atmosphere and cooking and bathing waste-water.
Before you write off this whole concept as "recycling-gone-too-far,"
you should keep in mind the current costs associated with human space-flight.
Some suggest that it costs roughly $4000 U.S. a kilogram (2.2lbs) to convey supplies to the ISS by unmanned Russian "Progress" cargo ships (The Progress apparently represents the cheapest means of conveying supplies to the ISS currently available).
Since 1 gallon of drinking water apparently weighs approximately 4 kilograms, it would appear -- at least to me -- that delivering a single gallon of water using the aforementioned basis represents a cost of $16,000. And as any active, earth-bound person might reasonably surmise, 1 gallon of drinking water is what a hard-working astronaut might ingest in just a single day on the ISS!
Multiply this "gallon" by the number of astronauts and other space-farers aboard the ISS and again by the number of days each is on the station and you might safely assume that millions of dollars are likely entailed just in the process of conveying water to the Station each year.
Obviously a Water Recovery System that enables astronauts to safely reclaim and recycle the water they typically excrete, exhale, lose in sweat evaporation or as part of the process of cooking or bathing represents a pronouncedly more cost-effective use of a extremely scarce and expensive liquid resource.
And it doesn't hurt that NASA affirms that "Water From This System (is) Cleaner Than U.S. Tap Water."
*
Now, we here at spacemeals.com have to ask: Are there mass applications for the Water Recovery System down here on Earth? That is, will the system become as much a part of the fabric of life on the planet as say Aluminum Foil -- another product of human space flight?
Frankly, we don't quite visualize a situation 50 years in the future in which every household on the planet is able to recover and recycle its own waste-water using this technology.
But you never know. Water Recovery Systems safely incorporated in to house-hold plumbing may become no more expensive than the average kitchen stove today; in fact, the big expense of utilizing such a system would be in the monthly fee you'd presumably pay a service to monitor the system's filtering efficiency;
We might also see closed-loop, personal water recovery systems by that time functioning as a more elegant version of Frank Herbert's Dune Still Suits, "wear" Herbert conceived of that might be able to keep a user hydrated for weeks without him/her ever actually needing to ingest additional water.
Or we might see a personal recovery system that allows some sort of intravenous delivery of water that removes the need for the drinking-process itself. Or even a system that integrates a means by which water is not only recovered from a users waste, but also simultaneously from the moisture present in the surrounding atmosphere; users of such a system might effectively never need to take on additional water by way of water fountains or consumption of bottled water, water-based drinks, container drinks or water-containing food).
It does seem more probable that in the near future we'd see water recovery systems used on Earth by military personnel dispatched to remote locations or by people living in desert or disaster-areas where water is scarce or otherwise compromised in some manner. We might also expect to see RV buyers and commercial, vehicle-based businesses install on-board water recovery systems too.
Also probable might be more "commercial," "pop-culture" applications of NASA's Water Recovery System. Consider the following scenarios:
Donald Trump decides to recover and recycle the water from his own urine. He then has it added to storage containers of his Trump Ice Natural Spring Water and names the new version of the water, Trump Ice "Little Trumpster" -- "Little Trumpster" being a nick-name he has allegedly given his pe...(nevermind). Trump advertises "Little Trumpster" using the slogan "Drink Me, Be Me!"; It retails for $100 per 16 oz bottle, yet still sells briskly. (Edit June 14, 2009: We think it's possible that Trump might instead use a more conservative name for the water, say Trump Ice "Signature." And he might favor a different slogan such as, "It Made It Through Me, So You Know It's The Best!" (TM)
Clairol introduces a line of shampoo for teen girls that is made with water "Recoveredand Recycled From The Jonas Brothers Band's Tour Bus Toilets." The product generates sales greater than all other hair care and beauty products combined. Clairol uses its new-found shampoo wealth to buy Lockheed Martin.
Spacemeals.com is a new site, so I'd like to kick things off by mentioning a few specifics about its approach to the topic of "space meals:"
1) Spacemeals.com is certainly predisposed to focus on the food and drink consumed by U.S. Astronauts. After all, this site is produced out of Los Angeles, Ca. USA -- So U.S. Astronauts represent my "home-team-in-space," so to speak.
But spacemeals.com certainly doesn't want to focus on what's on our Astronaut's menus at the expense of the menus of European Astronauts, Russian "Cosmonauts," Chinese "Taikonauts," private Space Tourists and a potentially growing number of nationally-backed space-farers from around the world. That'd be a disservice to our thoughtful readers.
So, if you -- regardless of your national origin -- find yourself in outer-space, spacemeals.com is going to dig up whatever information is out there about what you eat (If you are a foreign space agency or a space tourist, don't be shy about letting us know what's on your respective space menus. Hey, we'll even take "disinformation" on the subject as long as its from established organizations and individuals like yourselves ;)
2) Anybody with access to a web search engine and who takes the time to search keywords such as "Space Food" or "Space Meals" and then read a few of the resulting pages is -- in pretty short order -- going to have a fair understanding of how the types of foods consumed in space have changed over the last 50 years.
The 60s space menus are long gone. You no longer suck on tubes of Apple sauce or Borscht (Russian) while (Western) mission-control-types in black ties and short sleeved dress shirts tap their fingers nervously, hoping you can hold it down.
These days space-farers consume meals composed of foods and drinks one might normally have for breakfast, lunch or dinner down here on Earth in most industrialized nations. Said space-farers even occasionally have meals in orbit that are prepared on earth by famous chefs such as Emeril Lagase, Rachel Ray, or German chef, Harald Wohlfahrt and French chef Alain Ducasse.
Nevertheless, a list of environmentally-induced problems has emerged over the last 50 years that tend to dictate meal choices for space-farers. Spacemeals.com will certainly discuss this "list" and perhaps readers we'll use it as a guideline to suggest their own ideas for future space meals.
3) Spacemeals.com will do its best to "corral" all the latest news and information related to space meals and individual space food and drink items within a section on this site. We'll also certainly display a list of sites we regularly read on the topic of outer space.
4) Somebody on the ground has to eat, drink and review all the space-type food and drink hat you can buy on line! Wherever it can, Spacemeals.com will certainly make an effort to test and review any of the space meals sold over the counter by various on line retailers. I'll attempt to enjoy them -- or, egad, puke them up -- first, so you don't run in to any surprises if you are buying food items for space enthusiasts young and old.
5) When it comes to what to eat in space, you have a few bright minded food scientists with the space agencies and the companies who they contract with that are responsible for doing all the "heavy lifting" on the subject of menu planning for space flight.
Certainly, over the years, these scientists have received valuable feed-back from space-farers themselves. But the food scientists, whether in the public or private sector, are probably best described as perpetually "over-worked" preparing viable, updated space meal choices
Spacemeals.com and the intelligent general public will certainly attempt to get some more ideas out there for consideration. And those ideas will also include suggestions for how to address the nutritional needs of humans spending years on the Moon or two years or more on round-trip ventures to Mars and back.
Right now, spacemeals.com is admittedly not too keen on the idea of watching space-farers travel 6 months so they can then arrive on the surface of Mars and celebrate by breaking their backs setting up some kind of soybean-farm. Spacemeals.com thinks this idea needs a little work -- perhaps a series of small, closed "auto-farms" that are sent and fully established on Mars years ahead of the arrival of humans.
