Aloha, Mars! What we'll eat, wear and play with to ease boredom in space
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
One month into a simulated space mission, a team of "gastronauts" in Hawaii is already figuring out what to have for dinner on Mars. It's thumbs up for wraps and vegetables, even when the vegetables are dehydrated or freeze-dried. It's thumbs down for pre-prepared meat dishes and most sugary drinks. But Tang is a hit, just as it was for astronauts 50 years ago.
That's the early word from the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, a NASA-funded experiment that is forcing six non-astronauts to live on a Mars-style diet for four months. The findings could help the space agency determine what real astronauts eat and drink when they're sent to Mars in the 2030s or later.
HI-SEAS is about more than food: In addition to the taste tests, the crew members are playing with robo-pets, coping with the disconnects that a Mars expedition would encounter, and even trying out odor-resistant underwear. "Two crew members have been wearing the same exercise shirt for five weeks now without any problem, so we suspect they might have been treated,” Angelo Vermeulen, the crew commander for the simulation, told NBC News in an email co-written with other crew members.
The HI-SEAS mission is part of a three-year, $947,000 NASA grant that also covers a bed-rest study in Texas. For most of the time, the gastronauts are confined to a domed habitat placed at the 8,000-foot level on Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano. If crew members go outside, they have to wear mock spacesuits. And as the mission continues, communications between the habitat and the outside world will be delayed 20 minutes each way to simulate the light-travel time between Mars and Earth.
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Read more here: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/24/18475167-aloha-mars-what-well-eat-wear-and-play-with-to-ease-boredom-in-space?lite
