ROOM
53
Astronautics
Life in the HI-
SEAS dome
could become
a little stale
prior to a manned mission, would be three-and-a-
half-years old by the time a crew arrived on Mars.
From a logistics view, the ideal food is a
nutrient- and calorie-dense brick that would last
for many years; the modern equivalent of hardtack
and salt pork, though with better nutritional value.
But such food ‘bricks’ are less than ideal from a
crew perspective.
We were three of the six members of HI-SEAS
Mission III, which gave us an insight into some
of the issues that will be faced by future crews
journeying to Mars.
HI-SEAS (Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog &
Simulation) is a series of simulated Mars missions
funded by NASA and run by Dr Kim Binsted of the
University of Hawaii. The study’s overall goal is
to investigate crew selection, performance and
cohesion; and how to apply those lessons to a
crewed mission to Mars.
Our mission, ran for eight months up to June
2015. During this time, we lived in a dome on
the side of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, in
the middle of a desolate lava field. We didn’t see
people beyond the members of our crew and
communication with the outside world was limited
to methods with an imposed 20-minute delay to
simulate the time it takes for a signal to travel
between Earth and Mars.
Water was only periodically trucked in, thus
limiting crew members to eight minutes of
showering a week. Power was supplied by an off-
grid energy system. And to venture outside we
had to don simulated space suits. And for meals,
we could only eat food cooked from shelf-stable
ingredients - i.e. food that would last a three-year
mission to Mars without spoiling.
Most of our meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy
came in either dried or freeze-dried form.
Removing the water delays spoilage and reduces
weight and freeze-dried foods tend to have
a Styrofoam-like texture before they’ve been
rehydrated, while dried foods are much denser.
There was also a large stock of grains, legumes,
flours, spices, seasonings and a variety of snacks.
Generally, canned items were avoided because
of their relatively heavy weight. Our pantry was
Top: Expedition 20 crew
members Timothy Kopra,
Frank De Winne, Roman
Romanenko and Michael
Barrett share a meal in
the Unity node of the
International Space
Station. Above: Martha
collects rocks.
NASA
Neil Scheibelhut
