Running head: SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS

Food and Water Requirements for a Space Flight to Mars Name of Student Name of Establishment Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall 2011

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Abstract Space exploration has become an area of great interest in science. The quest for more knowledge about Mars has triggered the desire amongst scientists to explore the red planet. This is an exploration that can take around six months and around six astronauts can be involved. According to NASA, the spaceflight to Mars would require food and water for the crew members. The food and water requirements are determined by many factors including the distance covered and environmental conditions. Budgeting of food and water requires consideration of the different needs.

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Introduction A Space flight is a flight in to the outer space with the presence or absence of humans on board. The flight is thrusted initially to propel the space craft in to the outer space from the earths surface by a rocket launch. Past space flights that were unmanned include probes of space or satellite from the orbit of the earth purposely for communication. Manned space flights include bold human flights made by programs such as the American space shuttle and the Soyuz Russian programs. Space flights are utilized for several purposes. These include, exploration, telecommunication, and tourism, observations for space, earth and reconnaissance satellites. The struggle for a human spaceflight to Mars has never ended even after the Challenger disasters. Americans have always led the way towards the spaceflight to mars. The mission towards mars has been faced with many substantial challenges. These challenges have sparked massive research into the program that is focused on taking human being to Mars. Food and water requirements must meet the needs of the crew members who would facilitate the mission. The main aim of this report is to articulate the food and water requirements for a successful spaceflight to mars. Mars is a different planet based on environmental conditions and other geographical factors. The humans that would be involved in the anticipated mission would require different combinations of food to meet their dietary demands. Mars as a planet experiences seasonal variations in atmospheric conditions. This can be attributed to its proximity to the Sun and its axial tilt. These conditions make the planet different from the earth hence special needs for water and food for the astronauts.

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Background Robbert H. Goddard was the first scientist to suggest the possibility of rockets to function in space. Although, many scientists did not believe him, his publications have heavily been used to power rockets. The German V-2 rocket was the first rocket to reach space which had an altitude of 100 kilometres in year 1944 on a test flight launch. In October 1957, an artificial sputnik 1 rocket was launched by the Soviet Union to orbit the earth. The first manned/human space flight occurred in 1961 known as the Vostok 1 which was manned by Gagarin Yuri of the Soviet Union. It succeeded in making an orbit around the earth. Now, the only practical way of reaching and exploring the space is using rockets because of the high speed associated with its launching and travelling (Duke, Michael, 2002).The presence of life on Mars is an area that has attracted scientific interest. NASA has been on the forefront in investigations about life on Mars. Efforts have been made for humans to take a flight to Mars in the course of exploring the possibilities of life on this planet. Water is a prerequisite for any form of life found on Earth. In the history of Mars there was presence of liquid water for extended periods of time. Scientists still believe that the water is still there although hidden under the Martian surface. Today we understand that life might be impossible today on Mars because of the sterilizing effect of ultra violet rays. Space flight to Mars could help to provide answers to basic questions on the presence of life on Mars. Scientists do not know if on Mars there is sufficient water, energy sources and minerals. Mars has less mass than the earth, and this makes it possible for rockets lofting off its surface in escape of the gravitational pull. The similarities between the earth and Mars have made it the potential destination

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS for human beings in spaceflight programs. NASA commenced the investigations on te possibility of such flight in the 1990s. Due to budget constraints and lack of appropriate technology, the program was not found to be feasible. A decade later, the Constellation program was conceived with possibilities of taking human beings to Mars. However the presidential commission that assessed the program cited budgetary constraints but agreed that it was a stepping stone towards the ultimate objective of landing on Mars. Water and food requirements for a spaceflight to Mars would be determined by different factors. The time that would be taken from the Earth to Mars is very critical in the course of budgeting for food and water. It would take at least six months for the astronauts to reach the red planet. In this regard, it would be essential to budget for the six crew members for the duration of six months. The nutritional requirements would have to be met sufficiently to avoid health challenges in the course of the spaceflight. The distance between planet Earth and Mars is considered the largest and longest variation the earth has ever had with any other planet. The distance is incomparable to the distance between the earth & sun and the earth & moon, which is only 1.5 longer & 200 times longer respectively. In other words, with a constant velocity measure of a space flight to Mars, it takes approximately six hundred days to arrive on planet Mars where areas it takes only three days to arrived at the moon. These translate to about one and half years. (Duke & Michael, 2002). Several factors influence the food and water requirements necessary for a spaceflight to Mars. Energy needs

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS Great energy is required for load carriage in the space flight. Some of the loads carried may include equipments such as agricultural systems necessary to recycle air, water and food because of the long duration of the flight. These may need a lot of energy for pumping and running the system apart from the normal levels of energy of flying a space ship. In addition, the long distance of Mars from Earth may also cause the energy requirements to increase hence affecting food and water levels needed. Subsequently, inclusion of additional tools for repair and maintenance of redundant systems will definitely increase energy requirement in the flight, hence affecting directly the food and water needs in the space flight. Exposure to nuclear/solar arrays Exposure to the nuclear and solar rays for long periods may mean more water and food requirement during the flight. Some of the food and water may be used for protection against the solar radiation for shielding extensively. Where areas some may be used for consumption. Psychological Needs The psychological trauma effects associated with the long voyage trip may cause the numbers of people on board to increase for comfort, support and strength resulting to an increase in the food and water requirements. The psychology of the astronauts would be enhanced with certain foods. Research shows that eating certain types of food like the mashed potatoes and meatloaf can help to improve the mood of people. In this case, these types of food would be included in the budget to make the astronauts to have a good

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS mood in the course of their flight to Mars. The foods would also make them feel a sense of satisfaction with their mission. Scientific studies have established a strong relation between food and mood. The lack of certain vitamins and minerals can result in mood swings. This challenge would be evaded by the provision of foods that would promote good psychological health.

1.2.4 Physical Needs The higher number of people on board and length of the flight to and from Mars automatically increases the food and water needed for consumption . 1.2.5 Aviation Carriage requirements Regardless of the huge requirement of food and water in the space flight to mars, flight carriage regulations must be followed to ensure the safety of the crew members on board. Caution must be exercised despite the necessity of carrying water and food for both consumption and shielding purposes. (Zubrin, Robert & Richard, 1996).

The development of dietary strategies is arrived at based on factors such as the environmental temperature basal metabolic rate (BMR) of the individual and the physical activity level undertaken during daytime. Conditions that maintain environment suitability include adequate air to breathe which contains oxygen, water vapor as well as relatively low amounts of carbon dioxide as well as other gases. However, this excludes nitrogen or non-reactive (inert) gases like argon and helium. Other conditions will include suitable lighting, protection from external hazards, a suitable temperature (ideally

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS around 20-22C) and sufficient space which offers both psychological and physical comfort.

Thermo-stabilized foods are the second category of space flight foods and they are usually heat processed as a way of destroying deleterious enzymes and microorganisms. The individual servings of these foods can be made commercially available especially in bimetallic or aluminium cans, plastic cups and in flexible retort pouches (Pelt, 2005). Most fruits and fish like tuna and salmon can be thermo-stabilized in cans. Such cans can be opened with easy-open, full-panel and pullout lids while puddings are usually packaged in cups (plastic). Most of the entrees can be packaged based on flexible retort pouches which will include products like tomatoes and eggplant, beef tips with mushrooms, ham, and chicken ala king. Immediately the pouches are subjected to heat, scissors are used to cut them open. These foods are directly eaten from their containers using conventional eating utensils.

Intermediate moisture foods are those that are preserved through outright restriction of the available water amounts for microbial growth while at the same time retaining enough water to provide the food with a soft texture to allow people to eat it without due preparation. Water molecules are removed and their activities restricted with water-binding substances like sugar and salt. Usually, intermediate moisture foods particularly range from 15 to 30% of moisture even though the water present can be chemically bound using the sugar or salt making it less available in supporting microbial growth. Dried pears, peaches, and apricots as well as dried beef can be vivid examples of such types of space flight foods.

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS In the deployment of these dietary procedures, there are different types of foods that can be used during a space flight to Mars. At this point, weight as well as volume is the basic design factors for the piece of hardware released into space where the Shuttle is not exempted. The recommended weight for food is relatively around 3.8 pounds for each person everyday and includes one pound of food packaging for every person for every day. The foods are packaged and stowed individually for sufficient handling especially in this zero gravity environment (Taylor, 1960). Generally, all these foods are either precooked or processed and therefore requires minimal refrigeration. The foods are either ready to consume or simply prepared through adding water or heating. The major exceptions in this case are the vegetables and fresh fruits which are stowed in fresh food lockers. In absence of proper refrigeration, the celery and carrots should be eaten within the first few days of the space flight or else, they could get spoilt. Natural form (NF) foods are also very viable food sources as their tastes and nutrition contents are highly recommended by nutritionists (Mecham, 1995).

Foods like cookies, granola bars, and nuts are grouped as natural form foods. Such foods are made ready to eat as they are packaged in flexible pouches which need no further processing to ultimately consume during a flight. Both intermediate moisture and natural form foods are particularly packaged in clear and flexible pouches which are cut open using scissors. Irradiated (I) Meat and Condiments are also common food preposition sin space flights. Beef steak is basically the only irradiated product that is currently used on spaceflights. Evidently, steaks are cooked and packaged in various flexible foil-laminated pouches which are sterilized through exposing them to ionizing radiation as a way of stabilizing their states at ambient temperatures. On the other hand,

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS condiments will include commercially packaged pouches of taco sauce, catsup, mayonnaise, mustard and hot pepper sauce. Bottles of polyethylene droppers will contain bulk liquid pepper and salt supplies. Pepper is therefore suspended on oil as salt is essentially dissolved in water.

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The operational overview has much to do with dietary intake at the time of the spaceflight. Relevantly, dietary intakes are continuously monitored on select flights such as the Shuttle, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle-Mir as a way of arriving at fundamental scientific studies. Both pre-flight as well as post-flight dietary intakes can be determined through the use of conventional techniques in dietary assessments. It is for such a reason that crew members are always provided with diet logbooks and digital scales to record their feeding behaviour. In addition, the foods are often weighed by research dietitians before they are provided in each of the 5-18 day sessions of data collection (Tinder, 2007). A wide array of nutrient-analysis software approaches is applied. Here, crew members put down their dietary intakes at the time of the space-flight through writing down a log or using a barcode reader which often scans the package label of the food and records the consumed amount. In addition, the levels of different nutrients in each meal are calculated based on a record of the amount of each kind of food consumed. On the other hand, knowledge that relates to the nutrient amounts in each type of substance consumed is provided (Hollender, 1964). Using chemical analysis data, nutrient calculations relating to each spaceflight food substance are derived after every flight. Each week at the International Space Station, crew members fill in a questionnaire foodfrequency through which data is forwarded for analysis. Therefore, dietary intake is assessed in real time. Any changes in the diet are then suggested to the members of the

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS crew as a way of preventing nutrient deficiencies. One of the primary concerns is to have most astronauts probably consume as much energy (calories) to enable them attain good health and optimal work performance. Part of the flight crews which were monitored, it is only the crew members to Skylab that consumed sufficient energy (up to 99% of the predicted dietary intakes). Relevantly, most crew members in subsequent flight programs often consumed around 70% of the planned amounts (Spanier, Shahidi, Parliment & Mussinan, 2001). With reference to the Skylab flights, a considerable amount of time and attention was paid to food preparation and eating where the extensive exercise program of the crew members could have stimulated their respective appetites.

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Consequentially this dietary application, on all other flights, most crew members had very tight schedules which had little time as well as attention dedicated to eating. The dietary intakes of the crew members aboard Skylab, Shuttle-Mir, and Shuttle flights tended to record higher levels in carbohydrates as well as lower fat levels as compared to the pre-flight intakes. Such a change could be related to an increase in food levels that have high carbohydrates amounts. This especially includes sugar-sweetened beverages where these items are easily made during busy work schedules. In the space vessels food inventory, ample fat sources should be made available with more than two thirds of the main dishes containing more than 30% of the calories in form of fat (Dubbs, 2003). Just like any other home, the obiters need to be kept clean. This especially needs to hold true in space as floating dirt as well as debris presents plenty of hazards. In addition, wastes made from eating, cleaning, personal hygiene and work need to be carefully disposed. In general housecleaning, different wipes (fabric, wet, dry, disinfectants and detergents), detergents as well as wet or dry vacuum cleaners can be used in cleaning surfaces, the

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS astronauts and filters. Essentially, trash needs to be separated into both wet and dry trash bags where the wet trash cans are placed in evaporators that remove any form of water molecules. In addition, all trash bags need to be stowed in lower decks and returned to planet Earth for proper disposal. The solid wastes derived from the toilets are stored, dried and compacted in bags through which they are returned for disposal (burning). On the other hand, liquid wastes from toilets will go to wastewater tanks in which they are dumped overboard.

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The design for meal consumption and preparation involves a sequence of steps. A general meal scenario will begin with the Collection of meal trays and utensils and Displaying preselected meals on the service computers. This is followed by locating food through the use of location display function to prepare the food items and elements for heating. This stage is followed by placing the food items in oven to be heated and entering cook control codes. The beverages are rehydrated and placed on meal tray. The next step is to retrieve the refrigerated foods and placing the refrigerated food on the meal trays. This is followed by the retrieval of food items from oven and placing the heated foods on the meal tray (Barratt & Pool, 2008). The next step is that of eating then placing the used containers into predetermined trash compactor and later cleaning as well as stowing the utensils and meal tray. In the space flight, rehydratable dietary items will generally include both beverages and foods. One of the ways through which weight is conserved during an obiters launch is removing water molecules from the food system. At the time of the flight, water needs to be continuously added back into such food prior to consumption. In addition, the Shuttle obiter continues to fuel cells that produce electricity as well as combine hydrogen and oxygen to avail ample water mean for the

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS rehydrating foods and drinking as well as a range of other applications. Foods that are packaged in such rehydratable containers will usually include soups from cream of mushroom and chicken consomme, casseroles such as macaroni and cheese, chicken and rice not to mention appetizers from shrimp cocktail (Reilly, 1970). This category will also include breakfast foods such as cereals and scrambled eggs. Ideally, breakfast cereals can be prepared through packaging the cereals in rehydratable packages that support the preservation of non-fat dry milk and sugar. Elementally, water can be added to the food package prior the eating of the cereal.

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Shelf stable tortillas and shuttle galley are also part of the fundamental space foods recommendations therein. Flour tortillas are usually favorite bread items for the spaceflight astronauts. This way, tortillas avail easy and acceptable dietary solutions to microgravity handling and bread crumb problems. They have been in use on various Shuttle missions especially since 1985. One of the shortcomings is that mold becomes a major problem for tortillas that are commercially packaged (Ray, 2010). This is especially the case with longer missions for the obiter where there is inadequate refrigeration. Shelf stable tortillas were developed to be used on the space flights with extensive mission lengths hence making it rather appropriate for a space travel to Mars. A tortilla is stabilized through a combination of packaging that has modified water activity, pH (acidity), and atmosphere. This way, mold growth is inhibited though the removal of oxygen from the food package. This aspect is necessarily accomplished through packaging in containers with high-barriers for nitrogen atmospheres with oxygen scavengers. Relevantly, water activities are reduced up to less than 0.90 for the final product through dough formulation (Bourland, 1998). The reduced water activities as

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS well as a lower pH are key inhabitants of pathogenic clostridia growth which is a potential hazard with reference to the anaerobic atmosphere that is generated by modified atmospheres. On the other hand, the space flight galley was developed in 1991 as a way of reducing the weight and volume in updating the electronics. The design of the new galley usually weighs up to one-third less and will occupy half the volume of the previous one. From the rehydration station, the new galleys are used to deliver cold or hot water. The dispense quantities of cold and hot water are selected in half ounce increments of up to 7 ounces. The convection ovens of forced air heat beverages and food through conducting with hot plates and through forced convection.

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Conclusion Spaceflights are flights made to the outer space for purposes of exploration, telecommunication, tourism, observation of earths satellites and navigation. Space flight can either be manned or unmanned. Manned space flights refer to flights with humans on board and unmanned refer to those without humans. The first manned/human space flight occurs in 1961 known as the Vostok 1which was manned by Gagarin Yuri of the Soviet Union. It succeeded in making an orbit around the earth. Robbert H. Goddard was the first scientist to suggest the possibility of rockets to function in space and his publications ar used to date for referral in powering rockets. On a test flight, the German V-2 rocket was the first rocket to reach space which had an altitude of 100 kilometres in year 1944. Consequently, in October 1957, an artificial sputnik 1 rocket was launched by the Soviet Union to orbit the earth. Currently rockets are known to be the only practical way of reaching space mainly due to the high speed associate with them.

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS Space flights to mars with humans on board require carriage of both food and water. Several factors influence the amounts that can be carried on board such as energy levels necessary to pump repair & maintenance tools and systems. Physical and psychological effects resulting from the thought of existing in the space for years, Aviation restriction on the capacity levels of water and food that can be carried on board and exposure to solar radiation.

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References Barratt M., Pool S., (2008) Principles of Clinical Medicine for Space Flight. New York: Springer Bourland C., (1998) Advances in Food Systems for Space Flight: Life Support and Biosphere Science 5:7177. Dubbs C., (2003) Space Dogs: Pioneers of Space Travel. New York: iUniverse Hollender H., (1964) Development of Food Items to Meet Air Force Requirements for Space Travel. New York: Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories Mecham K., (1995) Space Exploration. New York: Lorenz Educational Press Nicogossian, Arnauld E., Carolyn L. Huntoon, & Sam L. Pool, eds (1993). Space Physiology and Medicine. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger Pelt M., (2005) Space Tourism: Adventures in Earth Orbit and Beyond. New York: Springer Ray A., (2010)The Astronaut's Cookbook. New York: Springer Reilly C., (1970) Man's Food Supply for Extended Space Travel. New York: Air War College, Air University Spanier A., Shahidi F., Parliment T., Mussinan C., (2001) Food Flavors and Chemistry: Advances of the New Millennium. New York: Royal Society of Chemistry Taylor A., (1960) Food for space travel: an examination of current capabilities and future needs. New York: Air Research and Development Command, U. S. Air Force, Andrews Air Force Base.

SPACE FLIGHT TO MARS Zubrin, Robert & Richard Wagner (1996). The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must. New York: The Free Press.

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