Quote:
Originally Posted by supernova1965
I think it has something to do with the longest voyage from the apollo days was around a week with Mars we are talking atleast 9 months. Its a little easier to handle meager food for a short time.
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Hi Warren,
I think you mean that the concern is that the
next generation of prospective
astronauts might not be able to handle "meager food" for years at a time.
The flight time duration is put into context when one considers for those who lived in
countries such as England and Australia in the years between 1900 and 1946,
that bread and dripping was commonly part of the daily diet for millions of people
for years at a time. Had it been somehow technically possible to fly to Mars in
October 1945, I don't think "will the food be boring?" would be the first question
prospective astronauts would have raised rather than "what food should I eat
to stay in good health in a zero gravity environment for this many months at a time?"
If the answer had been "unfortunately most of the foods you ticked as disliking",
that does not seem it would have greatly phased the palettes of the generations of
the past. One has to admire them.
It is not surprising that the NASA experiment includes volunteers who have
a "bachelor's degree in engineering." A large percentage of the original astronauts in
the 60's had engineering backgrounds, including Armstrong and Aldrin.
(Let's face, who else would you send there first?).
However, some insight into NASA's thinking is gleaned from the passage
in the Forbes story where it reads "you have to live astronaut-style: in a small
enclosure with strangers, with limited showers, writing daily reports". That seems
to be a reasonable description of the existence of the average undergraduate engineer,
crowded in shared accommodation, eating the same junk food day in day out
for years at a time, filling out constant assignments and showering occasionally.
Finally, I recommend the above diet of words be consumed with a large grain of salt.
I would have jumped at this had I the qualifications and would have foregone the 5grand to do it.
