A journey to Mars presents many challenges, not the least of which will be how to feed the astronauts during what is expected to be a six-month journey to the Red Planet.
To that end, the U.S. space agency NASA is working to create lightweight food bars that provide calories without adding a lot of extra weight to the Orion spacecraft and the massive booster needed to get to Mars.
in contrast to the worldwide space Station, in which astronauts can pick from more than 200 food items, that’s certainly not feasible for a challenge to Mars, in most cases because the amount of fuel needed to get to Mars method finding ways to store weight in other regions, like food. also, the ISS is often resupplied with numerous consumables.
if you have 700 to 900 calories of some thing, it’s going to have some mass no matter what shape it’s in, so we’ve taken a take a look at the way to get a few mass financial savings by using decreasing how we’re packaging and stowing what the team might devour for breakfast for early Orion flights with team,” said Jessica Vos, deputy health and medical technical authority for Orion. “whilst you reflect consideration on multi-week missions in Orion, having just one package for breakfast objects for crew will help us limit the distance we want to shop them.”
Even as many Americans devour a protein bar in a location of a meal on occasion, NASA said those are not desirable sufficient for the Mars venture.
“There’s no commercially-available bar right now that meets our desires, so we’ve needed to pass design something with a purpose to work for the team, even as looking to obtain a multi-yr shelf-existence,” stated Takiyah Sirmons, a meals scientist with the advanced meals generation crew at NASA’s Johnson space middle in Houston.
Some of the flavors being labored on include orange cranberry and barbecue nut.
NASA notes that for other food, astronauts on their way to and from Mars may have food selection similar to the ISS.
One capacity hassle with meals bars is that they'll decrease group morale, as food choice, taste and high-quality are critical on long missions.
So, NASA is likewise working on different ways to offer meals to astronauts, along with a vegetable production device like the one on the gas station in addition to other kinds of packaged ingredients.
The primarily manned launch of the Orion is anticipated as early as 2021, with manned missions to Mars coming sometime later.