Spam-fried noodles on Mars?

What would astronauts eat during a mission to Mars? That's one of the main goals of a NASA-funded study that is ending after nearly four months, with the test subjects emerging from their experiment on a barren Hawaii lava field, after simulating what it's like to live (and eat) on Mars.

Problems with food preparation on Mars range from the fact that most (if not all) ingredients would need to be non-perishable (unless they want to grow some crops in the spaceship -- but they can't rely on that). The food would, of course, need to give the crew proper nourishment. Another problem would be food boredom, which I think could lead to low morale, and maybe even malnourishment.

The study was named "HI-SEAS", which stood for "Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation". It tested two different food preparation strategies: 1.) Traditional "Astronaut Food", pre-prepared and prepackaged, and 2.) Astronauts preparing their own meals from available ingredients. The study was seeking to see if one strategy was better than the other, or if maybe a combination of the two is more ideal:



Personally, I think a combined strategy would be ideal, with the astronauts eating the pre-prepared foods sometimes for the convenience of it, and other times preparing their own meals to help fight food boredom. On the trip to Mars and the trip back, I suppose it would be mostly pre-prepared/prepackaged foods.


Last year, prior to the crew beginning their four months of isolation, HI-SEAS requested the public submit recipes based on a list of ingredients that may be available for use on future missions to Mars:
List of Ingredients


One of the winning submissions was a recipe for Spam Fried Rice:


Spam Fried Rice Recipe


Other winning recipes included quiche muffins, Moroccan beef tangerine, tabuli, and "Crater Crunch" bars. Below is a list of the winning recipes:
HI-SEAS Recipe Contest Winner


Another recipe submitted was for Spam Fried Noodles. Spam seems like a popular ingredient among some of the submissions, which coincidentally (or may it's not a coincidence) is a staple of modern Hawaiian cooking today.


Here is the website for HI-SEAS, which includes a lot of detailed information about the mission:
hi-seas.org...


Other sources:

Spam-Fried Noodles on Mars?

What would astronauts eat during a mission to Mars?

Nasa needs some Hawaiians on board, the crap those people do with spam is amazing.

Wives family is Hawaiian and they can't get enough of the stuff.

One thing to add...

With Spam seemingly being a popular ingredient in some of the recipes I mentioned in my post above, I can't help but think of this :

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Umm! I see corn in that image,humans digest the inner part of corn but the outer shell part, we cannot digest that, and as every little bit of space counts regarding weight etc, and I know that is not much weight but it does occupy some room in a packet that could be replaced with something we do digest, or is that too trivial to bother with something like that,

This is why I can't go to Mars.

No pizza.

"Hi. I'm eriktheawful and I'm a pizza addict...."

Originally posted by flipflop
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

Umm! I see corn in that image,humans digest the inner part of corn but the outer shell part, we cannot digest that, and as every little bit of space counts regarding weight etc, and I know that is not much weight but it does occupy some room in a packet that could be replaced with something we do digest, or is that too trivial to bother with something like that,

The outer cellulose husk of corn kernel cannot be digested, but the human digestive tract still has enzymes that can get to the starches inside the kernel -- even though the kernel may look intact when it "comes out"

www.ask.com...




EDIT TO ADD:

Plus, like other non-digestible fibers, the cellulose coating of a corn kernel can be nutritionally beneficial, even though it provides no actual nourishment.

Indigestible But Beneficial

Although corn's bran coat passes through your gastrointestinal tract without breaking down, this dietary fiber provides health-related benefits. The cellulose in corn bran absorbs water, which keeps your stool soft and promotes regular bowel movements...

Source

Basically, fiber does not need to be digestible to be beneficial to the human body. Fiber that passes through the body undigested provides important benefits.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


think that is what I said in my post, but thanks for that anyway

Originally posted by flipflop
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

think that is what I said in my post, but thanks for that anyway

I hit the reply button too soon on that post. I have since edited it with the additional information I originally intended.

It seems that even by going to Mars you wouldn't be able to avoid spam. Spam is truly everywhere

Nope, never happen. Sorry. It is all smoke and mirrors. Like the Moon, it will become too expensive or too something-else when we get to that point in time when it becomes possible. At that time, there will be other proposals which appear more attractive.

If you can send a man to Mars, why not send a man to the Moon? See...? It will never happen and I'll bet my boxers that we never get a man to Mars.

I understand that many of the same problems exists to feed men on the Moon as on Mars or anywhere else in space for that matter, so the exercise is not useless, but you guys getting all fired up about sending men out there **is** completely useless.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Personally, eating on a long space journey seems a little primitive and wasteful in terms of space and weight.

Surely, there ought to be a process by now where the sugars, amino acids, vitamins and minerals are simply packaged into an IV or similar to delivered directly into the bloodstream, eliminating eating and the waste from eating in one go.

There's my recipe idea...a nice bag of amino acids and the rest of it packaged into a nice small IV package...no waste, no food boredom..no food at all in fact.

Originally posted by MysterX
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

Personally, eating on a long space journey seems a little primitive and wasteful in terms of space and weight.

Surely, there ought to be a process by now where the sugars, amino acids, vitamins and minerals are simply packaged into an IV or similar to delivered directly into the bloodstream, eliminating eating and the waste from eating in one go.

There's my recipe idea...a nice bag of amino acids and the rest of it packaged into a nice small IV package...no waste, no food boredom..no food at all in fact.

I think not eating at all would lead to a type of food boredom and low morale. Humans have a desire to eat food/taste food/feel food in their stomachs.

Originally posted by qmantoo
Nope, never happen. Sorry. It is all smoke and mirrors. Like the Moon, it will become too expensive or too something-else when we get to that point in time when it becomes possible. At that time, there will be other proposals which appear more attractive.

If you can send a man to Mars, why not send a man to the Moon? See...? It will never happen and I'll bet my boxers that we never get a man to Mars.

I understand that many of the same problems exists to feed men on the Moon as on Mars or anywhere else in space for that matter, so the exercise is not useless, but you guys getting all fired up about sending men out there **is** completely useless.

Never is a long time.

Someday, people WILL go to Mars, and they will probably need to eat -- or at least they would WANT to eat, even if they get nutrition via some other means.

We may possibly get a man to the Moon again(yes, I'm a believer! Yay) but I think it will be by the Chinese or Russians and I think they may have problems once they get there. If it is true that we have been 'warned off', (and I cannot see any other logical reason why we have not gone there with rovers since) then it will start a backlash from whoever is there already.

I feel we really need to start thinking bigger and to develop some of the great ideas which have been already put forward such as some kind of garden arrangement. Develop some longer-term space station or spacecraft which could be used for longer journeys and would be self-sustaining. Similar to Red Dwarf TV series perhaps.

Maybe if we do get to Mars, then eat what vegetable matter already there. haha

Originally posted by qmantoo

Similar to Red Dwarf TV series perhaps.

Oh no....please......let us not go into space like Red Dwarf:



Else the space explorers might end up like this:



Of course, I'll be the first to admit, that I really wouldn't mind being in space with Cat, he's just too cool :

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by MysterX
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

Personally, eating on a long space journey seems a little primitive and wasteful in terms of space and weight.

Surely, there ought to be a process by now where the sugars, amino acids, vitamins and minerals are simply packaged into an IV or similar to delivered directly into the bloodstream, eliminating eating and the waste from eating in one go.

There's my recipe idea...a nice bag of amino acids and the rest of it packaged into a nice small IV package...no waste, no food boredom..no food at all in fact.

I think not eating at all would lead to a type of food boredom and low morale. Humans have a desire to eat food/taste food/feel food in their stomachs.

This is true, but then again, we also like a comfy pair of slippers and a warm body to cuddle up to and get amorous with from time to time.

A lot of us like wide open, green filled spaces too, but were not going to get much of that on a pioneering space flight either.

It's logistics.

Food and food waste management are resource hungry (pun intended), their inclusion and management equipment required drive up costs and drive down payload space for personnel or other mission equipment.

We all like to eat, but if a system can be reliably engineered where we don't require it..it would be a small price to pay imo. Eating's primary purpose is not enjoyment or pleasure, it's just a normal biological process to enable our bodies are able to work and survive.

If space travellers are more preoccupied with stuffing their faces with tasty food and not with primarily furthering Human expansion into our local system, perhaps they ought to stay at home close to the BBQ instead of taking up a seat on a long space flight?

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


You say that they can't rely on growing foodstuffs en-route...

Office of Scientific Investigation

The above was only one small glimpse of reports which indicated otherwise.

Then again, perhaps it was just COINT. There was an acronym for military disinformation, the name escapes me.


Main Directory

Anyway, that represents quite a good amount of data for getting started. Even if it is shady.

reply to post by teachtaire

The first missions to Mars cannot rely on the potential for growing their own food (either en route, or on Mars). Perhaps those missions could do real-world experiments to ascertain the viability of growing their own food for future missions and colonization, but the first missions will most likely take their own food.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


This was possible and done in 1959.

Closed biological systems are fact, not fiction.

A manned expedition being able to independently produce food is a necessity, not a luxury.

This is inarguable.

Originally posted by teachtaire
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

This was possible and done in 1959.

Closed biological systems are fact, not fiction.

A manned expedition being able to independently produce food is a necessity, not a luxury.

This is inarguable.

Yes. There are already experiments with hydroponics, etc. HOWEVER, they are net yet able to rely on such a system to give them 100% of all of their nutritional needs. There will be food taken with them.

If these systems were so "ready to be utilized", they would be utilizing them on the ISS, considering the cost savings that such a reliable system (if reliable for 100% of the crew's food needs) would provide.

I understand these systems exist. Lots' of things "exist" and are fact rather than sci-fi. However, they are not (yet) able to be relied upon to provide all of the food needed. How many different ingredients can they grow? will the varieties of ingredients that can currently be grown provide enough diversity to combat food boredom (which may lead to malnourishment)?