THE European Space Agency does not yet have a spacecraft to get to Mars, but it knows what its astronauts will eat once they get there. The agency has developed a menu designed to keep space travellers healthy 鈥� in mind as well as in body.
Given their usual fare of freeze-dried food, it鈥檚 not surprising that astronauts want something better. 鈥淚n almost all cases, our astronauts say the quality and diversity of their food could be improved,鈥� says Christel Paille of ESA in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
So the agency asked two French companies to produce recipes using nine ingredients: rice, onions, tomatoes, soya, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, wheat and a protein-rich alga called spirulina. The companies came up with a range of options, including Martian bread and green tomato jam, spirulina gnocchi, and potato and tomato millefeuilles.
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The ingredients will be grown by the astronauts themselves. Growing plants in special greenhouses 鈥� not to mention making gnocchi from scratch on Mars 鈥� will be labour-intensive, but can be automated if necessary. One crucial part of the farming will take no special effort. 鈥淥ur astronauts will produce all the fertiliser we need,鈥� Paille says.
