Food Production and Delivery Team
Martian Environment and Challenges
Your journey to the Red Planet will take you many months. It would be too expensive and
impractical to take all your food with you, so food must be grown. Balanced meals must be
provided because appropriate food selection is critical in maintaining healthy inhabitants. When
creating menu plans, you must consider that there will be people from many different cultures in
the settlement. There will be approximately 50 scientists and researchers at this station in the
beginning but more explorers can be expected over the course of the mission. The colony should
be able to support up to 150 people.
Plants and animals have specific needs for growth and survival, but the growing conditions on
Mars will be different than on Earth. Plants will take in carbon dioxide and use the energy of
natural or artificial lighting to make food and produce oxygen in the same way as on Earth.
However, growing can not be done using dirt from Earth because it would be too heavy to
transport. On Mars, plants will get their nutrients dissolved in water rather than soil. It will take
approximately 5 square metres of area to grow enough food for one person, if all the food eaten
comes from grain crops. You must maximize the growing space in order to meet the nutritional
requirements of Marsville. Growing food requires many systems operating together. Green plants
in an enclosed habitat remove carbon dioxide and add oxygen to the atmosphere. The facility
would produce food, recycle many waste products and contribute to a water purification process.
Activity
Your team is responsible for designing and constructing a working prototype (model) of a food
production and delivery system to generate, store, prepare and deliver food for those in the
colony. You will need to consider:
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Lighting conditions
Room for growing plants and animals
Methods for recycling waste products
Contributions to a water purification process
Filtration systems
The best method of storing the food so that it remains fresh and
read to eat
Without a continual source of food, the colonists will not survive. People will be counting on you
to keep their plates full!
Use the Team Blog to consult with the other teams. It will be important to work with the water
supply teams to ensure that you have a reliable source of water. The waste management teams
should be consulted to see how their plans fit with yours.
Getting Started
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Define the requirements of your system.
Examine how these are currently met on Earth.
Explore the limitations/opportunities of the Martian environment.
Gather feedback from other teams and mentors using the Team
Blog.
Design and construct your working prototype using the
requirements listed below.
Evaluate the design. Does it provide the greatest good and the
least harm to the persons and things affected?
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View the Food Tips to learn more.
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System model must be no larger than 1 metre x 1 metre x 1
metre.
It must include a working component such as an electrical switch
to turn a fan on and off or doors that open and close using a
simple hydraulic system.
Prototype must incorporate at least four Mars facts.
Materials used should be as representative as possible of the
materials that would be used for the real design.
System should work under the conditions of the Martian
environment.
System should operate with other life-support systems within the
colony.
System Requirements
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Questions to Ask
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What are the four food groups as outlined in the Canada Food
Guide? What are examples of foods in each group?
Why is it necessary to have foods from each food group every
day?
Why will proper nutrition be so important on Mars?
What sources of protein will be available on the colony? What
other sources of protein could be used?
How will water supply be controlled for the production of food?
What types of energy would be suitable for growing food?
Once the food has been grown and harvested, how will it be
stored for long periods?
What kinds of provisions need to be made for emergency
situations?
How will workers who have to leave the habitat get their food?
What changes would you need to make to the food for these
trips?
What materials can you use to make prototypes of your system?
What groups or agencies could you contact to get further
information about your topic?
Tips for Building Food Production and
Delivery Systems
Here are some ideas to help you learn more about your life-support system. Make sure you
divide up the topics and share your findings on the Team Blog.
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Study Canada's Food Guide and start a daily log of food eaten
every day. Determine if your are meeting the daily requirements
for the essential vitamins and nutrients.
Invite a public health nurse or dietitian to the class to talk about
nutrition and Canada's Food Guide.
Make a sample meal plan for three days, one week or two weeks
following Canada's Food Guide. Are all of the necessary nutrients
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included? Consider what changes might be needed for a healthy
diet.
Use a spreadsheet program to compare the costs of the various
meal plans. Come up with the least expensive but most nutritious
menus for Earth and for Mars.
Calculate the cost of feeding your habitat team for one week
using one of the menu plans.
Examine the types of food that have been eaten by astronauts
over the history of the space program. Look at how food is
preserved on the Space Shuttle Discovery and the International
Space Station. How appropriate are these methods for Mars?
Collect various foods packaged in different ways and discuss
which foods could or could not be taken into space.
Research to discover the favourite foods of the Canadian
astronauts and the most common foods taken on the Space
Shuttle Discovery by these astronauts.
Conduct a survey of favourite foods for the habitat teams, CNM
participants and mentors across Canada. Enter the information
into a database program.
Collect regional recipes or space food recipes from across Canada
and compile these into a Space Recipe Book. Use a database and
desktop publishing program for this activity.
Experiment with different methods of food preservation and
preparation for life on Mars.
Develop a new space food for Mars and an advertising campaign
to market this product across Canada. Take regional differences
and food preferences into account
Design a greenhouse or similar structure to grow your own food.
What energy system would be available to give you the
necessary conditions? How would this link with the water supply
team?
Grow vegetables such as carrots or lettuce using hydroponics.
Invite a speaker to the class to discuss this method of growing
food.