NASA Creating Meals for Mars Mission to Last Five Years
Eating five-year-old food doesn't sound too appetizing to us. But to the astronauts that NASA will eventually send to Mars, it'll taste as good as any five-star restaurant's fare. Well, maybe not that good, but it will be the sole sustenance for that group of men and women during their grueling trip into outer space.According to the Los Angeles Times, NASA will need to pack enough food to feed six people every day for three years. That's about 6,750 breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners. The toughest part is making sure the food doesn't spoil. NASA engineers are searching for different preservation methods and menus for the trip, which would last years. Their plan will most likely involve sending food to Mars ahead of the astronauts.
Traditionally, astronauts would eat freeze-dried food, but its shelf life isn't long enough for this mission. That method works well on shorter trips because water (a byproduct of the space shuttle) is used to cook. But on Mars, water is a much rarer commodity. Engineers are studying a sterilization process that depends more on pressure than temperature, but as of now, there are no sure answers to the problem.
Since the food is typically packaged in heavy, foil containers, weight is a major concern, too. There's also the task of making the food healthy (and having it taste like something more than notebook paper). Let's hope those astronauts have strong stomachs. [From: Los Angeles Times]
The 5 Greatest Planet-Exploring Robots
If its mission succeeds in 2012, NASA's latest Mars rover, the newly christened Curiosity will join an elite group of robots that have managed to touch down safely on an alien world. Click through to see Curiosity's five greatest forbearers.
Luna 9
Two and a half years before Neil Armstrong's giant leap, the Soviets' unmanned Luna 9 probe touched down on the surface of the Moon on February 3, 1966. For three days, it beamed back the first videos and panoramic photos from a heavenly body.
Venera 7
On August 17, 1970, the Soviet Venera 7 probe crash-landed on Venus and became the first spacecraft to survey our nearest planetary neighbor. What it found wasn't pretty: A hellish world with metal-melting temperatures of 475 degrees Fahrenheit and crushing atmospheric pressure 93 times greater than Earth's.
Viking 1 and 2
After three attempts by the USSR, NASA succeeded in landing the first robot on Mars when Viking 1 touched down on July 20, 1976. (Its sibling, Viking 2, landed on September 3.) Although designed for a 90-day mission, the landers spent over 6 years surveying the planet.
NEAR Shoemaker
On February 14 , 2000, Shoemaker locked into orbit around 433 Eros, an asteroid orbiting just past Mars. Though Shoemaker wasn't designed to land on Eros, NASA engineers successfully plunked it down on the rock after its one-year mission.
Huygens Saturn Probe
A joint American-European mission touched-down a probe called Huygens on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, on January 14, 2005. Nearly half the size of Earth, Titan is the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere -- which allowed Huygens to make a leisurely two-and-a-half-hour parachute descent while measuring the atmosphere and snapping photos of the terrain. It continued to send back data for an hour and ten minutes after it landed.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Angela said 9:13AM on 8-16-2009
Why don't we just send them with left over government issue C-rations? Remember that guy who just ate one from WWII and said it was tasty? Remember... reduce, reuse and recycle!
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ray said 10:11AM on 8-16-2009
waste of money.we have to cut back the money we give this useless company. nasa made some good things for us back in the 60's.now it's just a way to collet a pay check.
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aj121489 said 7:59PM on 8-17-2009
How is what NASA does today much different than what it did in the '60s when you really think about it?
Henry ptnm said 10:46AM on 8-16-2009
To ray: A waste of money? So is welfare especially to the illegals. Why don't you say something about that?
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gotarmadillo said 11:34AM on 8-16-2009
Gee!
I'm glas we've got the food problem under control.
Now, what are going to do about 5 years' worth or air to breath?
How about fueling this thing?
Are we going to build a ga station on Mars?
And finally, what are we going to do on Mars?
Bring back valuable, gift boxed Mars rock collector sets?
NASA did some cool stuff in the '60's, evcen though SPutnik beat us into the space race-but it's time to grow up-rocket power isn't going to make it, and the sort of scientific community required to"warp space" or whatever, doens't exist, anymore-gov't and military funded projects and beurocracy have destroyed it-not to mention EO and the lowering of standards, everywhere. The scientists who gave us quantum mechanics, nuclear physics and rocket power of the 1930-1960-couldn't exist in today's univeristies and government agencies.
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Brent said 11:56AM on 8-16-2009
NASA, what do you need to know, I got stuff in my Fridge from the last Century; hasn't killed me yet. Before we go to Mars, we should put our resources and brains to work to find a way to crack water so we have a cheap/clean fuel source to replace the oil that will reach peak production by 2020. If you did't like $5 a gallon gas, you won't like $25 a gallon gas either. Once the oil production starts decreasing you can expect the real oil wars to break out.
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Larry John said 12:17PM on 8-16-2009
OK so we send food to Mars, ahead of the astronauts. Nobody said the container has to land on Mars. It could orbit the planet until the crew gets there. And since space is a deep freeze, it could orbit Mars like a giant freezer until it's needed. So the only problem I see is determining how long flash frozen or freeze dried food and stay in a frozen state before it goes bad.
Hell, twinkies have a shelf-life of 7 years. If that's really the concern, and I don't for one minute imagine it really is, why not give them the same food given to our current military? It's good enough for them, it should be good enough for NASA!
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al schrader said 1:10PM on 8-16-2009
Is very likely this wont be needed. I've just discovered the particle that causes gravity & inertia (I have a tiny laboratory). It's all still very new, but there are enough clues to build a vehicle that can reach Mars in months, not 7 years....alfredschrader@aol.com
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www.truegroundspeed said 2:59PM on 8-16-2009
The food might be the easy part. Finding the hombres tough enough for the long trip could prove difficult.
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Emily Cragg said 5:49PM on 8-16-2009
Excuse me. I have 2000 NASA photos to show that Mars is already settled and inhabited by White, Black and Asian races. You deem us total idiots, to get us to believe there's nobody already there. Yeah, you idiots. You don't know the whole solar system is peopled; but some of the rest of us do!
Piffle. Such ignoramuses!
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mark said 6:39PM on 8-16-2009
The year is 1947
Some of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, a little over 60 years
ago, witnesses claim that an unidentified flying object (UFO) with
five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and mule ranch just outside
Roswell , New Mexico . This is a well known incident that many say has
long been covered up by the U.S. . Air Force and other federal agencies
and organizations.
However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of April 1948,
nine months after that historic day, the following people were born:
Albert A. Gore, Jr.
Hillary Rodham
John F. Kerry
William J. Clinton
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Dianne Feinstein
Charles E. Schumer
Barbara Boxer
See what happens when aliens breed with sheep and jackasses?
I certainly hope this bit of information clears up a lot of things
for you. It did for me.
No wonder they support the bill to help illegal aliens!
Now You Know.
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bailoutsos said 7:27PM on 8-16-2009
Send along xmas fruitcakes. Those suckers last forever.
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sykiks said 11:12PM on 8-16-2009
So do girl scout cookies. :)
Face on Mars said 7:45PM on 8-16-2009
"C" Rats & "K" Rats, canned to last nearly forever ?!. Replaced by M-R-E's?, to fix the economic military greed cycles!. Shoot the cook if he / or she can not make!; a decent peanut butter & jelly sandwich!. ???? """ WHAT"S !!!! """ ??? "" UP !!""?,
with five year ?. IS !! that to do a round trip??. Use to go there , and be back!, for
( IN ) time for Lunch!, or a mid morning snack!. Like my sculptures! figure out!, what they are yet!.
Some have to do with children games!, played on a street- block { avenue }!.
The city streets where just so over crowed with vehicular traffic , decent place to play!
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Bob Smith said 8:00PM on 8-16-2009
NASA, just check with DOD. I have eaten C-Rations that were over 10 years old. Damn good at the time too.
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