A standard mission to the International Space Station is six months long. About nine months before launch, each astronaut tastes the 200 or so items on NASA’s space menu and chooses what they want to be sent into space for them. Nutritionists weigh in to make sure they get the nutrients they need, and astronauts can take some ‘bonus’ treats with them. These can be off-the-shelf foods, and astronauts from different nationalities often have special space meals prepared for them. (Tim Peake got a bacon sandwich, beef stew with truffles and sausages and mash, courtesy of Heston Blumenthal.)
As you can imagine, during their six months of eating nothing but ready meals they have to rehydrate, and things out of cans, most astronauts suffer from menu fatigue. But they can’t nip out for a takeaway, and their ability to rustle something up from ingredients is minimal (although some do try it). Making sure astronauts get their nutrients is a medical issue; making sure there’s something they want to eat is a psychological one. A mission to Mars would take two to three years, and NASA is doing serious research on how best to ensure happy and well-fed astronauts for the whole trip.
Doing research in space is expensive, and so as much research as possible is done here on Earth, in analog missions (we have to use the American spelling, apparently!) that aim to recreate conditions in space. The EDEN ISS mission uses Antarctica as an analog, investigating how best to grow food in space.
There are also various crewed missions, where analog astronauts do everything they would do on a space mission – except leave Earth. One of these is the NASA-funded HI-SEAS (Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), an isolated habitat set in a
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Join us for an exclusive conversation with presenter, broadcaster and author Alan Titchmarsh. Recorded at BBC Gardeners’ World Live, and Hosted by presenter and broadcaster, Nicki Chapman, the audience listened in as Alan discussed what it means to be a good gardener… You can buy tickets for the next live show, BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair here.
Not everyone has a backyard appropriate for a large garden, but almost everyone can keep a container plant. Size is only one of the many advantages of growing plants in containers rather than in the ground. This only works well, however, if you select plants that are happy living in a pot. Gardeners in the West have many choices. Read on for some top options for California or Nevada container gardening.
Just over a week ago I spent a couple of hours at the Eden Project, so I thought I would show you some of the more unusual edible plants I came across while I was there.
Like new potatoes and asparagus, giant American marshmallows are clearly in season at the moment – they’re appearing in all the shops. We spotted them in our local garden centre (!) and, fresh from the success of our inaugural marshmallow toasting, we thought we’d set ourselves a challenge and see whether we could repeat it with something considerably larger.
Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps important spacecraft Arrivals and Departures and learns about growing nutrients and medicines in space. There’s a new plant experiment running on the International Space Station, and exciting news from ESA.
Did you sleep well last night? You would not have felt so cosy if your mattress had been infested with bed bugs (Cimex lectularius), an ancient pest that is making a comeback in the modern world, complete with pesticide resistence. Looking for a new solution to this age-old problem, scientists from the Universities of California and Kentucky took their inspiration from reports written in the first half of the twentieth century (sadly not available online) that describe the use of bean leaves (in Eastern Europe) to trap bed bugs so that they can then be destroyed.
A little while ago, I told you about a preliminary experiment that Dr Wieger Wamelink and his team at the University of Wageningen conducted. It demonstrated that it is possible to grow plants in simulated Mars and Moon soils.
In 2004, ESA challenged French chefs to come up with gourmet recipes for space travellers on Mars and other planets. They were limited by what could feasibly be grown on Mars, with extra ingredients (such as extra vegetables, herbs, oil, butter, seasonings and sugar) shipped from Earth.
Header image: A researcher in a spacesuit on “Mars” outside the Mars Society Desert Research Station in Utah. David Howells/Corbis Historical via Getty Images
This is one of a series of posts looking at what we might eat on Mars, where most food would have to be shelf-stable, tinned or freeze-dried. You can find other posts on this topic under the Martian Meals tag.
The latest Cargo Dragon resupply mission docked with the ISS on Saturday, and the crew have been unpacking essential supplies. Their fresh food treats this time are Gala apples, navel oranges, cherry tomatoes, onions, lemons, mini peppers and ripe avocados.