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Coming from this question about Mars foundation cargo, how do we know which food to deliver with the first and with the second cargo? (2x2x100t in total)

  • possibly the first tour could carry more foods than the second one, but do we know about what happens to (dehydrated/preserved) food on Mars after two years especially with regards to vitamins stability under space radiation - two years, four years?
  • possibly some foods could be grown by humans some time after their arrival (at which scale is that realistic?), but possibly not the complete supply.

Side note as first rough scale approximation: as it seems, one human needs 38kg food per month = a team of ten needs thus in a year 4560 kg, and say 10t for two years.

  • Would it be a risk to preserve foods coming with the first cargo for two years on Mars?
  • Would it be a risk for some reason while choosing to take all the food with the second cargo?
J. Doe
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    Military Field Rations are often older than the soldiers eating them. So perservation is absolutly no problem. And in your assumption about the mass on food needed you forget, that you can exclude water (freeze-drying) for transportation and use recyled water applied shortly before you eat what ever you wanna eat. – CallMeTom May 07 '20 at 11:10
  • so is it possible to survive on pure dehydrated MFR for two, four years, also if it has been under radiation? For example, if vitamins would degrade, you would not survive. – J. Doe May 07 '20 at 11:15
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    Would not recommend this (assume it isn't very healthy ;-) ) but plenty of people just eat junk food for years, which has like no vitamins. As I understand your question, your main concern is to have foot for the colonist, and the main problem is the tranported mass the second problem are vitamines. First problem is reduced by having light food (eg freeze-dring) so you can transport more. Remains the second problem (i do not know if degration in this scale is a problem overall!) looking on the overall mass, vitamins are a very small part of our food, as a last way out put them in shielded can – CallMeTom May 07 '20 at 11:52
  • @CallMeTom Except that there is some evidence that,at least as currently produced, vitamins in pills are not as effective (or perhaps not absorbed as well) as vitamins in foodstuffs. This may be a concern for such long missions. Limeys! – Carl Witthoft May 07 '20 at 12:44
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    Also often repeated, afaik newer studies show, that it does not matter how you "Insert" your Vitamins. And even if: the total amount of Vitamins men need per day is much less than 1g a day. If pills are not effective, take twice the amount... At the end of the day vitamins are do not drive up foods Mass but macronutrients, fiber and water. – CallMeTom May 07 '20 at 12:58
  • yeah, we have to find a way to protect our Mars colinists from limeys as their chances to find food would be far worse than centuries ago. Would be very much irony to have first Martian colony to suffer from limey. – J. Doe May 07 '20 at 12:58
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    Is "limey" used as a synonym for scurvy? – WaterMolecule May 07 '20 at 14:56
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    @WaterMolecule I don't know how "JDoe" was using it. "Limey" was slang for British navy men after the discovery that fresh fruit prevented scurvy. Limes were relatively slow to rot, so they'd load up a ship w/ them and make everyone eat one a day (or some such regimen) – Carl Witthoft May 07 '20 at 17:53

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