Date and time: 30 April 2012
Written by: Mike Bodnar, Crew 118, First Officer
Mmmmmm... Food. I can't recall whether in the past 23 years Homer Simpson has ever had to eat astronaut food in an episode, but it's doubtful he would survive for long. And had he been here as part of Crew 118 KiwiMars 2012 he would by now have stolen an ATV and ridden into Hanksville to Stan's Burger Shack.
The Mars Desert Research Station is challenging in lots of ways; the confined space, sharing it with other people whom you don't know very well, conserving water to the point of showering only every third day, and eating dehydrated just-add-water food.
The Habitat diet is under the auspices of Cornell University, who are undertaking a nutrition study of the MDRS crews. This means we follow a regime of 'cooking days' and 'non-cooking days', using the food supplied, and filling in a daily online survey so that those behind the research can gather data.
The food here represents the sort of diet astronauts and Martian explorers might have. If you have ever done any serious hiking you would recognise many of the items in the Hab pantry: beef freeze dried, chicken freeze dried, freeze dried pasta primavera, jars of freeze dried blueberries, cherries and papaya, along with other common add-water items like instant soups.
Jars of flakes of spinach, broccoli, carrots and mushrooms also await our pleasure.
Some foods require cooking, such as rice, pasta or instant potatoes, and there are various stocks, spices and sauces at our disposal. However, fresh vegetables, salads and fruits are nowhere to be found except in our imaginations, which are now, in week two, working overtime.
Each evening we fill in our nutrition surveys, which ask questions such as how hungry we felt before the day's main meal, how satisfied afterwards, what we ate, how much we ate, whether we feel sluggish or euphoric, what health issues we have, and what the high and low pints of the day were.
We also have to weigh ourselves each morning, also part of the nutrition survey information.
It is interesting keeping tabs on daily food intake, moods and weight, and I think we each reach our own conclusions about whether there are correlations between the diet and our moods or energy levels. Personally I'd kill for a steak.
But we are all agreed on one thing: come Saturday and the end of the mission we're all really looking forward to a salad, or vegetables. Or both. And ice cream. And anything that's not freeze-dried.
Mmmmmmm... Food!
ENDS.