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Bootstrapping scientific facilities in a planet with an unbreathable atmosphere which can only be effectively transversed to and from every 18 months is not an

Bootstrapping scientific facilities in a planet with an unbreathable atmosphere which can only be effectively transversed to and from every 18 months is not an easy thing. Not to mention the phenomenal effort required to grow food there or transport who knows how much food per person to provide the kinds of safety margins you would want to avoid your first Mars astronauts starving.

idlewords 3y ago
An amusing and underappreciated technical obstacle to Mars trips is that food you can subsist on long-term with that kind of unrefrigerated shelf life doesn't exist, even on Earth. BTW the Earth/Mars synodic period is not 18 months, but 26 months.
- kwhitefoot 3y ago
  How did Reid Stowe manage? He surely could not have relied on frozen food, too much risk of a generator failing. "In 2010 Stowe completed a more extensive ocean voyage, entitled 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey—a journey that commenced on April 21, 2007, from the 12th St. Pier, Hoboken, New Jersey.[1] Stowe was the principal designer and builder of the Anne, a 70 ft (21.3 m), 60-ton (54,400 kg) gaff-rigged schooner which he sailed on this voyage.[1][2] The purpose of the enterprise was to remain on the open ocean, without resupply or pulling into any harbor, for a period of one thousand days, " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Stowe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Stowe
  - idlewords 3y ago
    According to this link, he and his passenger cooked their own food: rice and beans, pasta, salt fish, and dried fruits, with sprouts for vitamins [http://www.marinebuzz.com/2008/02/23/soanya-ahmad-abandons-1000-days-at-sea-expedition-after-306-days/ http://www.marinebuzz.com/2008/02/23/soanya-ahmad-abandons-1...]. The food shelf-life problem is solved if you can rehydrate and cook foods, like this crew did. But a spacecraft has the cooking facilities of an office breakroom — just a microwave and source of hot water. And in that situation, where you need precooked heat-in-bag foods that stay shelf-stable for three years without refrigeration, we don't yet have the technology.
    - kwhitefoot 3y ago
      Why can't you include dried pulses and dehydrated other foods? All of those can be cooked in a microwave? Dried pulses are edible for a very long time.

idlewords 3y ago

An amusing and underappreciated technical obstacle to Mars trips is that food you can subsist on long-term with that kind of unrefrigerated shelf life doesn't exist, even on Earth. BTW the Earth/Mars synodic period is not 18 months, but 26 months.

kwhitefoot 3y ago
How did Reid Stowe manage? He surely could not have relied on frozen food, too much risk of a generator failing. "In 2010 Stowe completed a more extensive ocean voyage, entitled 1000 Days at Sea: The Mars Ocean Odyssey—a journey that commenced on April 21, 2007, from the 12th St. Pier, Hoboken, New Jersey.[1] Stowe was the principal designer and builder of the Anne, a 70 ft (21.3 m), 60-ton (54,400 kg) gaff-rigged schooner which he sailed on this voyage.[1][2] The purpose of the enterprise was to remain on the open ocean, without resupply or pulling into any harbor, for a period of one thousand days, " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Stowe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Stowe
- idlewords 3y ago
  According to this link, he and his passenger cooked their own food: rice and beans, pasta, salt fish, and dried fruits, with sprouts for vitamins [http://www.marinebuzz.com/2008/02/23/soanya-ahmad-abandons-1000-days-at-sea-expedition-after-306-days/ http://www.marinebuzz.com/2008/02/23/soanya-ahmad-abandons-1...]. The food shelf-life problem is solved if you can rehydrate and cook foods, like this crew did. But a spacecraft has the cooking facilities of an office breakroom — just a microwave and source of hot water. And in that situation, where you need precooked heat-in-bag foods that stay shelf-stable for three years without refrigeration, we don't yet have the technology.
  - kwhitefoot 3y ago
    Why can't you include dried pulses and dehydrated other foods? All of those can be cooked in a microwave? Dried pulses are edible for a very long time.