ROOM
54
Astronautics
Our kitchen was small but well-equipped.
We had induction cooktops, a small oven,
microwave, toaster, kettle, rice cooker and
yogurt maker. We also had a small garden which
was Martha’s personal research project. It wasn’t
large enough to make a significant contribution
to our calories but the rare, small portions of
fresh salad we got from it and the slightly more
plentiful herbs were always a welcome addition.
It was also a connection to ‘Earth’ and our only
source of green.
Life in the HI-SEAS dome could become a little
stale. The scenery through the one window never
changed, the work was repetitive and the EVAs
never took us more than a mile or two away.
The greatest source of variety day-to-day was
our food though crew members quickly found
out that cooking with the shelf-stable ingredients
could be difficult and sometimes frustrating.
Challenges in the kitchen had to be overcome
with willpower, creativity and necessity.
Something that would take a few seconds on
Earth, like adding cheese to a meal, might take
a full hour on our simulated Mars because
rehydrating the freeze-dried shredded cheese
could only be done slowly and incrementally by
adding cold water and keeping the container in
the refrigerator.
The pre-made meal most commonly eaten in
the dome was macaroni and cheese. Its popularity
was more dependent on it being a staple comfort
a 20-foot shipping container mostly full of food
- but even that wasn’t large enough to keep six
people fed for the eight months. We needed three
re-supplies as well.
Initially, we ate some of the pre-made freeze-
dried meals similar to the kind used for camping,
but they were disliked by most of the crew. A
favourite low power meal was Build-Your-Own-
Ramen - put all your favourite freeze dried
veggies, meats, soup base and noodles in a big
bowl and just add boiling water. On sunny days,
when power wasn’t a concern, we were able to be
more creative.
Social structure
As a crew, we decided how we wanted to organise
our meals. For breakfast and lunch, people mostly
cooked for themselves whereas dinner was prepared
by a team of two and eaten all together. We set a
rotating cooking schedule, which was occasionally
interrupted by days of leftovers, low-power days
or special celebration meals. Each day there was a
chef in charge of making dinner with an assistant
sous chef. There was also a clean-up crew of two for
the day. After each chef and sous-chef had cooked,
the sous chef would shift, so eventually every crew
member worked with every other person in both
a leading and following role. This was one of our
few areas of social structure over the course of the
mission and was devised by the crew. Other crews
have organised their time and duties differently.
Space food
might conjure
thoughts
of Tang,
astronaut
ice cream or
Space Food
Sticks, but
none of these
products have
the strong
connection to
space that one
might imagine
Below: Selection of
shelf-stable food.
Below right: Home grown
salad and homemade
herbed cheese.
Zak Wilson
Jocelyn Dunn
