The Nutella Incident

Today is World Nutella Day, which seems like an excellent opportunity to explore the time that a spoonful of chocolate hazelnut spread nearly caused an interplanetary incident.

It’s 2013, and six people are living on Mars – or at least as close as you get at the moment. They’re isolated in the HI-SEAS analog habitat in Hawaii, cut off from life on Earth for four months. Their NASA-funded mission is to explore the ‘Risks associated with an inadequate food system.’ The problem is that, during long-duration space missions (such as a mission to Mars), astronauts will inevitably get tired of eating rehydrated meals. So then they will eat less, lose weight, miss out on essential nutrients and potentially compromise the mission. 

One possible solution is to allow astronauts to cook using shelf-stable (long-life) ingredients. But that means the crew needs extra cooking equipment and spends time preparing meals and cleaning up. So does the psychological benefit of better feed outweigh the resource costs?

That was what the crew of the first HI-SEAS mission were researching, comparing pre-packaged instant meals with ones they cooked themselves. The study tracked the crew’s satisfaction with their meals, alongside their use of power, water, food and other supplies.

For principal investigator Dr Kim Binsted, the project’s goal was to work out the most efficient grocery list for Mars in terms of cost, mass, taste and nutrition. By the end of four months, the researchers would have a good grasp of which food items were essential and which ones should stay on Earth.

The Mission 1 Crew was Simon Engler, Dr Sian Proctor, Kate Greene, Dr Oleg Abramov, Dr Yajaira Sierra-Sastre, Angelo Vermeulen (mission commander).

[This was the mission during