Mars Base Zero:

Food Consumption

1/1/00 to 4/30/00

Written primarily by Ray R. Collins, with editing and comments by Frances J. Nichols

Background

Our (Ray and Frances) goal in recording the foods that we consumed during the first four months of the year 2000 was to show how much food is needed to support two people. The initial purchase of food on 1/1/00 was for the primary foods, but not fresh foods and perishable items like lettuce, fruit, yogurt, etc. We estimate, however, that 80% or more of the food was purchased at this time. Further purchases were not logged very consistently, so they are not recorded here. To obtain a close approximation to the total amount of food needed, you would multiply by 5/4 (1.25).

Since our diet was aimed toward that which would be producible in a biosphere (closed ecological life support system), it is primarily a vegetarian diet, with eggs and fish added (which are, marginally, producible in a biosphere).

Products of the biosphere were eaten, but are not included in this listing. Our biosphere produced a surplus of eggs. These were eaten on a regular basis, at the rate of about 10 per week. Since, during these 4 months, production was 12 per week we gave away the extra 2 eggs produced per week. Other than eggs, the biosphere was not very productive. We did have three chickens (marginally a product of the biosphere), a few radishes, a small handful of carrots, a small handful of strawberries and all the parsley and mint we wanted (which was actually less than produced). As I write this (on May 1, 2000) we have about 8 square meters of ripe wheat, but not yet harvested.

Once a month we would purchase meat of some kind and have a celebration. During the first 1/2 of the time we only went to the grocery store twice, each time to purchase fruit. However during the last 1/3 we went on a regular basis, since we were making a serious attempt to loose weight, and for nutritional purposes we had to purchase more food (since the foods we were eating was low in certain minerals and vitamins when consumed at a rate below 2,000 kcal per day). However, a majority of our food was still coming from our stockpiles.

During these four months both inhabitants of Mars Base Zero were dieting and lost considerable weight. Therefore this should not be viewed as a sustainable diet. But it is a basis on which to build future diet plans for more prolonged stays. The foods we consumed were a bit bland, but were satisfying none-the-less.

A complete listing of the foods stocked and eaten summed up shows that we consumed about 160 pounds (73 kg) of food during the four months, or about 2/3 of a pound (310 g) per person per day. Since this only amounted to stocked food, and during this time period we were both dieting, this is probably only half the amount of food actually needed to keep oneself fit, using our diet.

The next occupancy of Mars Base Zero is expected to occur in the fall and first half of the winter of 2000. We plan further diet content and analysis at that time.

Foods Consumed

On May 1, 2000 we compiled a list of food eaten between 1/1/00 and 4/30/00. As mentioned above, this list is not complete, for we purchased about 20% of the food we were eating as we went along. Probably the biggest failure in our planning was the quantity of potatoes we expected to use. We planned to have a large number of potatoes, with plans for meals of potatoes at breakfast, lunch and dinner. This did not materialize at all. We only ate about 5 pounds of potatoes throughout the entire four months. The biggest success was our drink planning. We finished the last of the drink mix on 4/28/00. On a more solid basis was our noodle planning (macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, elbow macaroni). We used all 48 ounces (8 boxes) of the macaroni and cheese; we had only 16 ounces, of the 176 ounces we started with, of spaghetti; and only had 3.6 ounces, of the 64 ounces we started with, of elbow macaroni left on May first. So we planned this pretty well.

We wanted a little diversity in our beverages other than plain water so we bought frozen juice concentrates (6 orange, and 6 mixed fruit), a box of 8 pouches of Capri Sun, and a box of 16 tubs Crystal Light lemonade (which make 2 quarts each). We also drank some of the powdered milk. We had to be careful to ration our drinks so that we did not drink them all at once and have none left for later months. We drank all of the Capri Sun within the first two months. Since we did not get a freezer until early February (and then it was too small to keep the cans in), we put the frozen drinks in the snow bank With temperatures in the -20's F, we did not have to worry about them thawing! This worked well until the middle of March when the temperatures started getting above zero, at which time we quickly used the remaining frozen drinks. The Crystal Light we spread out better and drank the last tub on April 28. Neither of us are tea or coffee fans, however, 3 or 4 times a month we each bought a soda while getting gas.

In an attempt to liven up a mostly bland diet, we bought some seasonings (Mrs. Dash, cinnamon, dill, black pepper, nutmeg, ginger, Italian seasoning, ground cumin, garlic powder, cream of tarter, and paprika). Of these we used the dill, cinnamon, and pepper the most. We were planning to make our own tomato sauces using the garlic and Italian seasoning but never did since we did not get any tomatoes. The other spices were for baking which we did not do because of the improperly functioning oven. When we return in the fall, we will be able to experiment more with the seasonings.

The most intriguing part of our diet is the wheat. We had a poor idea how much we would need, so we purchased a 50 pound bag of wheat berries. Of this we used 30 pounds. The wheat was ground into flour, which was used primarily for whole wheat bread, but also made excellent pancakes. We also used a small amount to make home-made noodles. (In the future we plan to make all of our noodles, which were a significant portion of our diet.) We used about 135 ounces of white flour. In the future we hope to obtain the screens needed to sift whole wheat flour into white flour. We purchased pancake mix, and used 12 ounces of this. (We probably would have used more, but started skipping breakfasts about halfway through the four months). Thus our total consumption of wheat products (macaroni, white flour and wheat berries) total about 56 pounds (25 kg).

Wheat is a primary crop in Mars Base Zero, second only to potatoes. Using the most optimistic figures available (Salisbury & Bugbee, 1985) we can potentially produce 2.86 pounds (1.3 kg) per 10.5 square feet (1 square meter) in 60 days. Thus during the period of our experiment we could conceivable have produced 2 crops of wheat. The area needed to produce the wheat consumed (at these high production levels) is 103 square feet (9.7 square meters). More conservatively we estimate 288 square feet (27 square meters) should be devoted to wheat production to match consumption at this rate.

The chickens were not fed from Mars Base Zero produce. Therefore their food should be counted. Since the number of chickens varied and we did not track the foods used very closely, it would be difficult to calculate the exact requirements for chicken food.

Breakfasts

We did not eat breakfasts on a regular basis past the first part of March, as a part of our effort to loose weight. However, our initial planning was for daily breakfasts throughout the entire time. Thus, we had a fair amount of breakfast food left. Here is our shopping and planning list that we used as a basis for our breakfast purchases. The % number is the planned total percentage of meals; there are 120 days between 1/1/00 and 4/30/00, so the number after the = sign is the number of meals for two people we needed to purchase.

· oatmeal 15% = 18

· eggs 10% = 12

· pancakes 10% = 12

· fried potatoes w/onion 30%=36 (as go)

· raisin bran 10% = 12

· toast and jam 10% = 12

· turnips 5% = 6

· rice 5% = 6

· grits 5% = 6

· fresh milk (as go)

Lunches

Our lunches were somewhat haphazard. Some days we ate at Mars Base Zero, some days we made lunch and took it with us, some days we just skipped lunch, and other days we stopped at the store for fruit and yogurt. If we had eaten lunch regularly we probably would have used more of the items on this list. As it is, we did not have any potatoes for lunch, cabbage and borsch was never made, grilled cheese and turnips were only eaten once or twice, peas and tortillas were never eaten for lunch. These items were replaced with more leftovers, more peanut butter and jam, and more eggs.

· Peanut butter & jam 15% = 18z

· potatoes 25% = 30 (buy as go along)

· cabbage & borsch 15% = 18 (buy as go along)

· grilled cheese 5% = 6

· leftovers 5% = 6

· turnips 5% = 6

· peas 5% = 6

· eggs 15% = 18

· tortillas 10% = 12

Dinners

Dinners were probably the best success of our planning. We ate, to a large extent, what we planned. The biggest thing that didn't get eaten was potatoes; of the 36 meals planned we only ate about 7 meals in potatoes. Nor did we make pizza as much as planned--our oven turned out to have problems and we only managed to have pizza a couple of times.

At the bottom of the list of items, I have included a partial list of things we ate that we did not have on the initial list, to show the sorts of things we did to 'cheat'. This list was only maintained through early March, but the trend did not change much for the duration of the time.

· potato 30%=36

· rice 10%=12

· spaghetti 5%=6

o need Prego

· macaroni & cheese 5%=6

· fish 7%=10

· pancakes 5%=6

· chicken 3%=

· freezer stuff 5%=6

· beans 10%=12

· refried beans (extra)

· pizza 10%=12

· stuffed peppers 5%=6

'Cheating': those foods we bought or acquired (eg eggs) for dinners that were not in the 'official' dinners list. Included in () are the dates we had these meals.

· cheating -3-eggs (2/3) (2/12) (2/16) (2/22)

· cheating - eggplant(2/6)

· cheating - pork chops (2/8:)

· cheating - corn & rice sauce (from store) 2/10

· cheating - bread & prego (2/20)

· cheating - yogurt (2/18)

· cheating - salad bar in Valdez 2/19

· cheating - hot dogs 3/5

Snacks, condiments & desserts

These are the things that really didn't fit in with our regular foods. Of these we ate small amounts of most of these, most of a few and none of a few. The most popular were the sunflower seeds and peanuts for actual eating, and the yeast we actually ran out of (whole wheat bread uses a lot--1 tablespoon per loaf) and had to acquire more.

· relish

· lettuce

· mayo

· apple sauce

· powdered milk

· juices

· mustard

· miracle whip (small)

· honey

· baking powder

· lemon juice

· oils

· sour cream

· ketchup

· syrup

· butter

· sugar

· yeast (lots)

· spices:

o Italian seasoning

o pepper

o garlic powder

o herb garden

· salad dressing

· sunflower seeds

· potatoes

· fruit

· pirog

· cake

· peanuts

· muffins

· raisins

References

Salisbury, Frank B. and Bugbee, Bruce G. 1985. Wheat Farming in a Lunar Base. Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (W. W. Mendell, editor). Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas.