If chicken can convert algae at 30-40% efficiency compared to 60-70% for Tilapia, it just means chicken will cost double the price of Tilapia. But both will be more efficient (and hence cheaper) then real vegetables.So, chicken or Tilapia, bread from algae, and tomatoes. Serve with spices of your choice - they weigh nothing and have a long shelf life, so can come from Earth.
Quote from: alexterrell on 03/23/2013 08:23 pmIf chicken can convert algae at 30-40% efficiency compared to 60-70% for Tilapia, it just means chicken will cost double the price of Tilapia. But both will be more efficient (and hence cheaper) then real vegetables.So, chicken or Tilapia, bread from algae, and tomatoes. Serve with spices of your choice - they weigh nothing and have a long shelf life, so can come from Earth. I don't know about Tilapia, but I would ask how you plan to transport the first chickens from Earth to Mars? It's my understanding that fertilized eggs won't work. They will either hatch or spoil.
It is quite well known that Tilapia tastes of almost nothing. BTW that is why I don't buy them in the shop.
Quote from: alexterrell on 03/23/2013 08:23 pmSo, chicken or Tilapia, bread from algae, and tomatoes. Serve with spices of your choice - they weigh nothing and have a long shelf life, so can come from Earth. I don't know about Tilapia, but I would ask how you plan to transport the first chickens from Earth to Mars? It's my understanding that fertilized eggs won't work. They will either hatch or spoil.
So, chicken or Tilapia, bread from algae, and tomatoes. Serve with spices of your choice - they weigh nothing and have a long shelf life, so can come from Earth.
Quote from: mmeijeri on 10/07/2011 03:20 amAlgae have been studied for bioregenerative life support, notably in ESA's Melissa project. Spirulina turns out to be one of the best candidates. It is chock-full of everything you need, including vitamins.There's a big snag though, humans cannot eat more than ~100g/day of algae (or more generally single cell proteine) without getting gout. Somewhere during our evolution we lost the ability to break down uric acid, which is a product of DNA / RNA digestion and when we get too much of it, it forms the painful crystals responsible for gout. Spirulina is an excellent food supplement, but not suitable as the main component of your diet. Plus you don't want to be eating nothing but algae soup every day.Fish on the other hand do have the ability to break down uric acid, and Tilapia thrive on a Spirulina diet, so the combination would be very useful for human consumption.Well that is what I was talking about when I mentioned food processing. I was imagining that algae would not be terribly tasty. The raw material is there we just need to do food processing to turn it into something useful.
Algae have been studied for bioregenerative life support, notably in ESA's Melissa project. Spirulina turns out to be one of the best candidates. It is chock-full of everything you need, including vitamins.There's a big snag though, humans cannot eat more than ~100g/day of algae (or more generally single cell proteine) without getting gout. Somewhere during our evolution we lost the ability to break down uric acid, which is a product of DNA / RNA digestion and when we get too much of it, it forms the painful crystals responsible for gout. Spirulina is an excellent food supplement, but not suitable as the main component of your diet. Plus you don't want to be eating nothing but algae soup every day.Fish on the other hand do have the ability to break down uric acid, and Tilapia thrive on a Spirulina diet, so the combination would be very useful for human consumption.
Spirulina bioreactorsThe ‘Melissa loop’ is about to take off. All around the world – and soon above it – key pieces of the puzzle are being tested to see how they fit into the whole. First up is a photo-bioreactor that uses light to power organisms for turning unwanted carbon dioxide into something we can use. Bioreactors cultivate organisms in closed containers but getting a species to thrive is no easy task. As the occupants grow they need space and different lighting. And continuously drawing the good stuff out of the reactor ready for human consumption cannot be allowed to disturb the mini-ecosystem. The Melissa team has made great progress in this domain and is ready to test their system in space. In the next 12 months they will send Spirulina algae to the International Space Station to see how well it grows in microgravity. Spirulina has been harvested for food in South America and Africa for centuries. It turns carbon dioxide into oxygen, multiplies rapidly and can also be eaten as a delicious protein-rich astronaut meal. The first experiment will simply assess how Spirulin aadapts to weightlessness so researchers can fine-tune the unit. The next step is a hands-on test: an experiment that mimics astronauts’ breathing will be connected to the bioreactor so the Spirulina can grow on a steady stream of carbon dioxide, delivering oxygen in return. If these early tests in space go well, the team will be a long way towards the ultimate goal of recycling carbon dioxide, water and organic waste into food, water and oxygen