- [Narrator] The Mars mission
seems to be on everyone's mind.
Billionaires are building rockets.
- I think we could probably send the first person
in about 12 years.
- [Narrator] Hollywood is making blockbusters.
- I'm alive, surprise.
- [Narrator] And citizens of Earth are signing up
to leave their lives behind to colonize the red planet.
- With my wife it's a lot more tense.
- [Narrator] But none of that will matter
without one key element, food.
NASA estimates that a round trip to Mars
will take almost five years.
And creating a food system that can sustain that trip
is an unprecedented challenge.
- The food system we have now has about
a one and a half to three year shelf-life.
And we need a five year shelf-life
for an exploration mission.
- [Narrator] We went to the NASA Johnson Space Center
to meet the people who are fueling human space exploration,
and tackling this unique challenge head-on.
- Rockets take rocket fuel.
Humans take human fuel.
And human fuel is food.
- [Narrator] This is What it Takes.
Looking at weird jobs that have an impact,
and the curiously inclined people who do them.
(upbeat music)
Ryan Dowdy is a serious food nerd.
- Hi Michelle, how are you today?
- [Michelle] Good, how are you?
- Good.
Hi Kelly, how are you today?
Hi Donna.
- Hi Ryan. - Happy Tuesday.
- [Narrator] He manages the food systems team at NASA,
planning meals for astronauts.
- In many ways I'm like the manager of a restaurant
who goes around to everyone's table,
and says, are you okay, are you doing okay?
Except that it's astronauts.
- [Narrator] In early space missions
astronauts didn't really get real food.
- [Ryan] At the time food was supplied in
essentially toothpaste tubes and gelatinized cubes.
- [Narrator] But astronauts were not really into it.
So the food lab has been working to improve
the eating experience by making real food
that reminds them of home.
But what makes food in space different than food on Earth?
- Often chefs will work to create a meal
that's served immediately.
Here in the food lab, food scientists
are working to prepare and stabilize food
that will be eaten in years.
- [Narrator] Just getting to Mars and back
would take three years.
But once they land, astronauts will stay
to grow crops for themselves and future explorers.
That's why NASA wants to develop food
that can last for five years.
Which is two years longer than what they can currently.
With nowhere to stop for more food or water,
everything that the crew will eat in transit
has to be onboard the shuttle to Mars.
And there's just not a precedent for this kind of situation.
- You look at Arctic exploration,
some of those missions were several years long
like ours, but they had cold storage,
and they were able to hunt.
And we don't have either of those capabilities
when we go to Mars.
- [Narrator] A journey like this
introduces new challenges and old ones.
Because vitamins break down over time,
one of NASA's chief concerns is
vitamin C deficiency, which causes scurvy.
Growing crops on Mars will help,
but counting on them as the only source of food is risky.
- It takes a lot of time to do the research
and build up that system so that you have
confidence in that system, that you have it validated,
that you know those crops are going to grow.
- [Narrator] If for some reason
they have trouble growing food on their own,
it's important that astronauts
have extra food to sustain them as they troubleshoot.
- We're going to be on the Mars surface in the 2030s,
so we're trying to get that five year shelf life
figured out within the next five to 10 years.
- [Narrator] So what does it take to make food
that lasts a really long time?
Precision.
- When you think of a recipe at home
you're like, set the oven to this,
and it's pretty quick.
But here, it's a method to it.
- [Narrator] First, the lab itself must be perfectly clean.
Using mostly off the shelf ingredients
that pass NASA's strict standards,
they make huge servings of all their meals,
like this quiche.
Then, depending on the food, they either freeze dry
the food repeatedly, or thermostabalize it
to reduce the threat of bacteria.
After that, it's vacuum sealed to pull out oxygen
and reduce its volume for travel.
But before it can be signed off for delivery,
everything is tested for quality and consistency.
- The food industry uses a one to nine scale,
it's called the hedonic scale, to score foods.
And all the foods have to get
a six or higher in order to fly.
This is our braised red cabbage, butternut squash,
roasted Brussels sprouts, sweet and savory kale.
- [Narrator] All of this food is great for
the International Space Station,
which is much closer to Earth than Mars.
But NASA's still searching for that five year solution.
No matter what techniques they come up with
to preserve food for that time,
one thing will be in mind.
How to make space feel like home.
- So if we think about the way that we look at food
here on Earth, we have holiday celebrations
that are around food, we have family celebrations
that are around food.
And so we want our crew to have that same experience
because that's important for them to be
a cohesive team, and it's important for them
to be able to bond over those food experiences.
- [Narrator] With the Mars mission looming,
Ryan, Grace, Lynette, and the rest of
the NASA Food Lab team are working
to develop systems that are helping
humans push the limits of space exploration.
For now, and for the future.
- Space is extremely dangerous,
and humans are incredibly fragile biological beings.
In order for humans to survive
we've got to provide food that reminds them of good things.
And that's what we work to do in the Food Lab.
(calm music)
- Hey, thanks for watching.
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