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Astronauts may have more food options available to them by the time they go on trips to Mars, as shown in this artist's conception, and NASA wants to be ready when the time comes.
Want to get paid $5,500, plus expenses, for tasting different kinds of space food on Hawaii's Big Island for four months? Join the crowd: About 100 people have applied for the job so far, and there are still six days to go before the deadline.
There are a few catches, though: You'd have to be cooped up in a fake Mars habitat for most of that time, cut off from the rest of the world except for a time-delayed communication link. Forget about packing the bikini. Anytime you leave the habitat, you'd have to wear a bulky spacesuit. And don't expect a luau. The whole point of this exercise is to find out whether it's better to feed you freeze-dried and dehydrated foods, or let you make your own meals from "shelf-stable" ingredients such as flour, beans, rice and cheese. For 120 days, you'll have to write detailed assessments of all those meals ... as well as your own mood.
Such is the life awaiting six prime crew members and two alternates next year during a 120-day simulated Mars mission known as Hawaii Space Exploration Analogue and Simulation, or HI-SEAS.
University of Hawaii researcher Kim Binsted says the applications have been streaming in as the Feb. 29 deadline approaches. She can tell where HI-SEAS has gotten a shot of publicity by keeping track of where the emails are coming from on any particular day. "Apparently Italy heard about us yesterday," she said. By next week, she expects to have 200 or so applications to choose from.
The selection criteria are relatively stringent: a bachelor's degree in science, math or engineering ... three years of graduate school or professional experience ... ability to pass a flight physical exam ... 24 months of being tobacco-free. Plus, of course, a normal sense of taste and smell. "We're looking for people who would be as astronaut-like as possible," Binsted told me.
The simulation, conducted by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is designed to find out which kinds of foods would make the most sense for a months-long mission beyond Earth orbit. Are meals be more satisfying if they're made from bulk ingredients, or will it turn out that the usual pre-packaged, no-muss meals are actually more suited to space missions?
Douglas C. Pizac / AP file
Gus Frederick, right, examines his camera as Greg Drayer looks on during a mission near the Mars Desert Research Station, northwest of Hanksville, Utah. The Hawaii mission simulation is likely to use a similar type of mock spacesuit.
After selection and training, the crew members will travel to Hawaii in early 2013 and get settled inside a simulated habitat that will probably be set up in the Big Island's Saddle Road area. Binsted said "it's very stark, very Marslike," with fresh lava flows from the Mauna Loa volcano. In addition to their food-tasting duties, the crew members should have some spare time to conduct other research studies, as long as they stay in character for the simulation.
Binsted said the entire three-year project is supported by a $947,000 NASA grant, and about a third of that will go toward the 120-day taste test. The project also includes a head-down, bed-rest study that's being conducted at the NASA Flight Analogs Research Center in Galveston, Texas, to simulate the effects of long-term microgravity.
Many astronauts have observed that food seems to lose its flavor in space — which is why hot sauce is such a popular condiment for crews on the International Space Station. Binsted said the bed-rest study could determine whether the hot-sauce effect arises because of a physical effect (for example, swelling of the nasal passages in zero-G) or a psychological effect.
"There's not a lot of 'spice' in their life, so maybe they have to get it from their food," she said.
More about space food and simulations:
- Wanted: Six mock Mars astronauts with the right stuffing
- Pale-faced crew emerges from 520-day mock Mars mission
- Space spice gets five stars from space station crew
- First Mars astronauts may grow their own food
To learn more about Hi-SEAS and apply to join the crew, check out the project's call for participants. Application deadline is 11:59 p.m. Hawaii time on Feb. 29. You can also follow @HI-SEAS on Twitter.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or following the Cosmic Log Google+ page. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Hawaii is way too inviting. They should run these tests on Devon Island in the far north Canadian Arctic, where previous Mars-like simulations have been run. That would cut the applicant pool way down, I think.
Heat and lava fields can be pretty grueling too, and would certainly test aspects that they have not run into in the North so far. If done near the observatories one can even be in a low atmospheric pressure environment for real, and do different testing there as well. So, while the test pool may be large, they also have a large number of regimes they have available for testing..heck, if they throw in a pool or underwater facility they can do the "Weightless, outside the craft" regimes as well, Probably easy to find in Hawaii...
Can you imagine being in that space shuttle, when it is about to take off, knowing that you are about to go to Mars?
Wow, I wonder what that would feel like. Knowing that you are about to lift off of earth, headed to Mars.
Well, it would no longer be our Shuttle Fleet, but yeah, even riding a standard rocket up, meeting up with something put up pieces at a time, say in close co-orbit at the Intl. Space Station, to head to Mars, as would be more likely at this point, would be an awesome thing to contemplate. I would assume it would be much like adventurers setting sail across a wide ocean, as our ancestors did, yet with different equipment and across a wider ocean than normal, to a new place to explore and, in time, to live. There are exciting times ahead for our future explorers!
I wonder if anyone has looked into the idea of using something similar to our breadmaking machines, like in so many home kitchens. Just having the packs of ingredients ready, adding the water etc, one would think that having the smell of the fresh baked bread might be as welcome as the bread itself. Dunno how that would work out for zero/micro gee and the enclosed environment but would be interesting to find out!
The crew on this study will have a bread machine.
Well, in terms of baking bread in zero g, it wouldn't be all that difficult to create a breadmaker with a centrifuge built in that would basically simulate 1 G and then from there it would operate much the same as any other bread machine. But, realistically, that kind of thing would probably weigh anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds (even after any miniaturization of parts), so you'd have to think about that added mass to your space ship.
Fresh baked bread would be great while in space though... Because fresh baked bread is always good.
The "zero g" envrioment would only be en route to Mars. Once there, there will be gravity, about a quarter of what it is here IIRC. Maybe a weaker strain of yeast to compensate for that is called for?
Before they take a long trip to MARS..they should do a better test on the moon first!
They have smart one
Bill, as I'm sure you are aware, no one has gone to the moon since '72. The technology has changed since then, and frankly so have the options of what to eat. A lot of work has been done over the years making food taste better and with greater variety so that our astronauts don't get bored with their food. Food is one of those things that can REALLY affect a space mission through what it does to the astronauts mental state. People are generally happier when they have choices of what to eat, and the food itself is tastier.
But, for the purposes of this experiment, going to the Moon I don't think would really help. You could research other things in that kind of mission, but if the mission is just about "whether it's better to feed you freeze-dried and dehydrated foods, or let you make your own meals from "shelf-stable" ingredients such as flour, beans, rice and cheese" then it's better to just stay in some secluded spot and do as these researchers are doing.
$300,000+ for the 4 month project and $5,500 for 8 people? That's $44,000 for the crew and $256,000 for the food?
i.e. (project is supported by a $947,000 NASA grant, and about a third of that will go toward the 120-day taste test)
Hmmmm......You people are cheapskates!! Pay these people $5,500 a month and maybe it would be worth it.
The bulk of the analog mission funding will go to operating the habitat - there's a lot more involved than just providing food.
LOL, RR123... you've kind of over simplified what all is being paid for. There are the cost of the habitat, like electricity, water, garbage, maintenance, etc. Then there are the paychecks that go to the support staff for the habitat, and the doctors, and the nurses, and whoever else works on this thing besides the 8 people. There is probably paperwork and fees for paperwork too. There is a lot more that I can't even imagine right off the top of my head; insurance jumps to mind.
It certainly is not $256,000 for food. Although, I'm sure the dehydrated food they are eating probably has a higher cost than the stuff you can get at your local outdoorsman stores. They have to prepare and process it just like they would for a space mission which means it'll go through a different process altogether, and that will undoubtedly raise the price. But still if you think the food is going to be anywhere near the main cost of this thing then you're fooling yourself.
Make sure there is a lot of spices and herbs.. We Learned that when backpacking instant foods came out !!
No astronaut ice cream? No thanks then!
I heard they brought back Space Food Sticks.
they should have done it in deserts in Arizona
So, this would be something these people do for the love of it? I mean, 5500 dollars for 4 months. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that anyone with "a bachelor's degree in science, math or engineering ... three years of graduate school or professional experience" probably makes more than 1375 bucks a month. For a standard 40 hour week, that's about $8.59 an hour.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to partake in this experiment, but it doesn't exactly pay well. I live in Washington state and as of 2012 our minimum wage is $9.04. So, an entry level employee at the local Mcdonalds (working full time) would actually be taking a pay cut to be a part of this study.
But, I'm guessing everyone who wants to be a part of this study has a deep love of all things space. I would love to be a part of this experiment, even though I am a VERY picky eater.
Actually, even though you wouldn't really get to enjoy Hawaii, and you have to be cooped up for 4 months, and you'd have to eat what they told you, and I'm guessing there is no alcohol(?), ...even with all that I'd still probably want to be a part of this study even if they didn't offer the money at the end.
Surely, with all those Bachelor Degrees around, SOMEONE will figure out how to make a simple still?
Since out of a dozen country boys who never finished the eighth grade in any county jail in the country there is always at least one who can do it, I'd expect lots better from these guys, LOL.
Damn! Sign me up, Alan!
I'm also an experienced and very knowledgeable hydroponic gardener.
;-)
P.S.: I'll take a pass on the bat-like upside-down sleeping, though, thanks. =)
I know a few hydroponic gardeners... Do you meet the requirement of two years without tobacco use? ;-)
Hydroponic gardening is not really necessary while in Hawaii! Everything grows better there, I mean everything!
Furthermore, imagine yourself in an upside down hamoc, with a very slim and hot astronaughty hula girl!
Sounds great, but $5500 for 4 months??? I'll have to take a pass.
If I was in better health I would jump at the chance, YOU try living on $780/mo from SS. $5500 would be awesome by that scale! Besides, the trip to Hawaii would be worth it anyhow!
Why even bother with human astronauts in the future?!
It won't be long before the government has its first "T-1000" model that will be able to do what humans can do.
It would be more cost effective and safer to send complex robots or "androids" to Mars than humans. Once the flexibility and dexterity issues are worked out, robotic astronauts will be ready to go; we're closer to that day than you think.