Mission-8

Compost

Sunday, February 21st 2015, 3:30pm.

Cuisine: it’s not cuisine anymore, it’s compost.
Location: Crown Heights.
We visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to view their composting exhibit and spoke with Mimi Jorling, a graduate of the BBG’s composting certificate program and BBG librarian, about cultivating dirt, and food, on Mars. She showed us various approaches to composting, including red worms. Since most composting methods involve adding mulch, leaf litter, and other organic materials which won’t be available on Mars we also considered anaerobic techniques such as the Bokashi method.

compost2

1. COLD. On average, the temperature on Mars is about −80 degrees F (−60 degrees C). In winter near the poles temperatures can get down to −195 degrees F (−125 degrees C). A summer day on Mars may get up to 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) near the equator, but at night the temperature can plummet to about −100 degrees F (−73 C).
By comparison, Earth averages about 59 degrees F (15°C) and the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was −128.56 F (−89.2 C), in Antarctica.

2. EXTREMELY LOW ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
Mars, outside habitation: 6-10 mbar = -40.145 F / -40.081 C boiling point
Earth, sea level: 1,013.25 mbar = 212.009 F / 100.005 C boiling point
On Mars, your blood will boil if you go outside without a pressurized spacesuit. Habitable structures on Mars would need to be pressurized like spacecraft.

3. TOXIC AIR, E.G. CARBON DIOXIDE. Martian air has a partial pressure of CO2 of 7.1 mbar, compared to .31 mbar on Earth. CO2 poisoning in humans begins at about 1 mbar. For plants, CO2 much above 1.5 mbar is toxic. Martian air is completely toxic to both plants and animals.

4. LESS SUNLIGHT BUT MORE UV RADIATION. Less sunlight (further from the sun) but due to the relative lack of a magnetosphere and the thin atmosphere, Mars has extreme amounts of ultraviolet radiation.

6. GRAVITY. 38% of Earth’s gravity. It is not known if Martian gravity would have similar health effects such as muscle loss and bone demineralization found in the microgravity of near-earth orbit, nor is much known what effects 38% gravity would have on growing food.

7. SEASONS. Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19°, similar to Earth’s 23.44°. As a result, Mars has season much like Earth, though they last nearly twice as long because the Martian year is about 1.88 Earth years.

8. DISTANCE. It takes 128-333 days to get to Mars from Earth, communication transmissions are delayed 3-22 minutes.

9. DUST. Toxic, tiny, clings to everything electrostatically, likely to be an issue with air filters, water purifiers, etc. Mars also has enormous dust storms.

1. Living spaces entirely within a sealed, spaceship-like environment, including any greenhouses.

2. Cooking methods altered. Cooking with a pressure cooker, and/or with induction cooker likely. (What happens with flames or barbecue in 38% gravity?)

3. Food from earth is highly preserved, packaged for 5 year shelf life. Shipments might only arrive once every few months. Missions to Mars have taken 128-333 days in transit.

4. Fresh food is limited. Greenhouse growing an untested challenge, many unknowns in terms of growing season, light, gravitational effect. Can some crops not often traditionally eaten on Earth grow well on Mars, such as algae, fungus, insects? What about preserving grown food?

5. Persistent dust. Would it have a flavor or texture effect?

6. Plating. ?

Menu for Mars

Pioneering a Menu for the Red Planet

Mission-8

Compost

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