Mars-500 food taste testing

IMBP has the news of the candidate shortlist posted on their website, and a group photo.

The candidates also had to do food taste testing (not an onerous chore!) for the prepackaged food they will need to take on board for 520 days (nearly 1½ years). There won’t be any fresh fruit or vegetables (unless they manage to grow these in a greenhouse).

Doctor Alexandr Agureev (head of the department of nutrition in IBMP and the head of works on nutrition in “Mars-500” project) informed the investigators about the fact that in the given experiment for each stage of the experiment its own variant of food ration would be used:

1. The stage of simulation of the flight to Mars. The ration is formed from the products (including semi-finished products of dishes), manufactured by a series of European firms («Apetito», «Kellogg», «Hipp», «Coppenrath», «Enervit», «Knorr»). This part of the ration is supervised by German scientist Doctor Jens Titze from the University in Erlangen.
2. The stage of landing to Mars. The second variant of the ration will have 2 kinds. For the three crew members who will simulate descent and going to the Martian surface, the food ration will be formed from the products ready for consumption without heating and it will only foresee consumption of hot drinks. For these purposes real space products used during forming of food ration for the crews of transportation vehicle “Soyuz” are most suitable. The rest three crew members who will simulate flight on the Martian orbit, will eat the ration of the first and third variants.
3. The most difficult task is forming of the 3rd variant of food ration for the stage of simulation of the flight from Mars to Earth. It is connected with the fact that the main mass of products for cosmonauts has shelf life in temperature conditions of the environment from 1 to 2 years. However, assortment of products having 2-year shelf life is extremely limited.

In 520-day experiment this food ration will be formed from products produced by food enterprises of Korea, Italy, China and Russian (“Gala-Gala” firm and enterprises of food industry Michurinsk city).

I think I will be feeling more interested in Mars-500 than the real manned space program, which is currently limited to a few people going up to the ISS, staying a few months, going down, etc. It has been suggested that an ISS crew member stay up there for a year or more (as cosmonaut Valerii Polyakov did on Mir for 437 days during 1994-1995), but nothing has come of that so far.

The estimated cost of the project is €15 million (around $20.5 million U.S. dollars). I really wish that could have been put toward a real Mars mission. My own (quasi-suicidal) plan is for a manned test mission to Mars and back, orbiting the planet without landing (thus the extra expense for a Mars lander would not yet be needed). The crew would be a minimal two, and the spaceship would be based on the structure of the ISS Russian segment, with a “Topaz” nuclear reactor in an extra rear module to provide power for electrical propulsion (solar power is not enough that far out to Mars). As the mission is experimental, the crew would need to accept the inherent risks (will the life support systems function for that long? Will they survive the effects of background radiation exposure?). Maybe Russia and China could team up to do such a mission. This mission could pave the way for a more expensive manned landing. It would also excite public interest, especially with the risks involved.