Food for the (really) long haul
Matthew Daniel reports.
| More 'Front Burner' articles in this issue |
| Salt of the earth |
| New York grown |
| The eyes have it |
| Focus on food |
| Romancing the love of fruit |
Paris—Leave it to the French. After astronauts from that country returned from long stints orbiting the earth, their biggest complaint to the European Space Agency (ESA) wasn't about the cramped quarters or the hectic schedule; it was about the food. So, the Toulouse-based ESA did what any respectable resident of le beau pays would: they hired Alain Ducasse.
Instructors at the superstar chef's ADF cooking school in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil were presented with a nightmarish order: figure out how to feed a crew on a mission to Mars with just nine ingredients. The astronauts will carry with them equipment for growing wheat, rice, soybeans, potatoes, onions, beets, tomatoes, lettuce, and spirulina, a high-protein alga normally found along the ocean shore. To make matters worse, any expedition to the Red Planet is expected to last at least two and a half years, so the ADF chefs have to pull a lot of inspiration and variety from that humble palette.
"Our task is: how can we upgrade the quality of the meals for the astronauts without losing nutrition?" says director of development Florence Cane, who is overseeing the project. The solution has been surprisingly appetizing. Despite its powerful taste, akin to that of seaweed, and its electrifying green color, spirulina has become a favorite of the team, who dry and powder it to add to potato gnocchi. Among the other promising dishes are tomato/wheat "Martian" bread with green tomato jam and a potato/tomato mille-feuille.
One of many quandaries involves the sort of equipment that can be used in such an environment. While Cane and the ADF are working around the microwave technologies used aboard the space shuttle, Michele Perchonoc, NASA's lead scientist for advanced food technology, says that the options need not be so limited. Mars has about three-eighths the gravity of Earth; thus, the flipping of a pan might mean a lot of time midair for an astronaut's potatoes, but they will still return to the skillet. "We would be able to use some pretty high-end appliances, just adapted for the space available," she says. "Maybe a stove, a bread maker, or a mixer—really like a basic kitchen."
While the estimated launch date for any trip to Mars is 2035 at the earliest, NASA and the ADF are both trying to improve space meals closer to home, aboard the International Space Station and the space shuttles. According to Perchonoc, most meals now come canned and pouched for reheating, like the MREs used by the military. Cane and her team have developed their first set of recipes for the ESA, including caponata, roasted quail with Madeira, swordfish with Mediterranean vegetables, and semolina cake with dried apricots. And as for the gold standard of early space dining, freeze-drying, it's now obsolete, as is the highlight of any child's field trip to a planetarium, freeze-dried ice cream. "Yeah," says Cane with a laugh, "we've only had one shuttle crew ever request that."
