They will need the delicious meals that will make their long stay on the moon or Mars enjoyable
Avi Blizovsky
The astronauts of the future thank the people of Cornell University. A chef, a nutritionist, a biological engineer as well as a vegetarian cooking teacher, these days at Cornell are engaged in developing delicious, nutritious and economical recipes that will make up the menu that will be served in the extended space missions and in the space colonies. The recipes are based on a limited selection of 15 to 30 types of plants that can be grown in space living environments. Wheat and potatoes will be the main ingredient of the meal, and rice, soybeans and peanuts, lettuce and fresh herbs will be served as a side dish - all will be grown in lighted hydroponic farms where the temperature will be controlled.
The staff members are assisted by tasting groups made up of their staff, and students and university employees, who taste newly prepared dishes once a week. Among the recently tested dishes are tacos stuffed with cheese with tomato lettuce, "chicken legs" made from carrots, basil pesto with soybeans, pasta primavera and tofu cheesecake. "Our goal is to create a menu of 100 vegetarian recipes that will contain familiar and new ingredients," says Jean Hunter, professor of agriculture and biological engineering at Cornell, who heads the project team.
The team also developed for NASA a "food decision-making" strategy that would guide astronauts when using biogenerative life support systems on multi-year missions, such as a scientific colony on Mars. A biogenerative life support system - where plants and microorganisms will recycle the air, water and also produce food for the crew - may be a good solution for long space flights planned for another 20-15 years.
"Because the cost of transporting the food into space will be astronomical, only 15 percent of the calories will be from food produced on Earth," adds David Levitsky, a professor of nutritional sciences and psychology at Cornell, who also participates in the project. "Only 10 of the calories in our dishes are from national foods. This imported food will contain mainly fats, flavor and aroma concentrates, and a variety of food products based on meat and milk, as well as a few luxury products such as chocolate. This will allow the crew to hold festive meals to break the monotony and isolation of a long journey in space."
Also participating in the project are Rupert Spice - a chef and lecturer in the food and beverage department at the Cornell School of Hospitality, who is responsible for the development of some of the most attractive dishes - as well as Adrian Rovers, a former restaurateur and now a vegetarian cooking teacher, who prepares the foods and is responsible for the experimental groups. Amar Olavi, a graduate of the Department of Food Sciences, is responsible for the concentration of information on the ingredients, starting with the reactions they evoke and ending with their cost.
The researchers received a three-year budget from NASA, and the research began in mid-'97. Now they are developing a sweetener and oil from wheat and potatoes, and are looking for methods to produce and process food. To this end, the researchers examined traditional food processing processes, including those that have been in use for more than a thousand years, as well as ideas from high-tech laboratories. For example, microorganisms were used to turn wheat stalks and other grain residues into oil, as well as to turn surplus wheat and potatoes into sweetener.
The Cornell team is not the only one developing food for space travelers, but its project is unique, as it will include an analysis of the cost of labor and equipment required for each ingredient and recipe, and will take into account data such as time, energy and space constraints. All this data will allow you to choose the best and cheapest diets for each task. The team will also compile a list of foods and food components that can be obtained from Earth, as well as a proposal for additional food components that can be grown in space. In addition, future crew members, space habitat planners, engineers and food professionals at the Johnson Space Center will be instructed in how to prepare the tastiest meals with the greatest possible variety of ingredients.
"Food plays a critical role in determining the physical and mental state of an isolated team," Levitsky says. "We will therefore strive to provide a diet that will be familiar to the team, one that will give them a sense of control over food preparation and a sense of pride in the self-production of attractive and tasty dishes. We will focus on this in a series of training workshops planned for the third year of the project."
