Food Synthesizer ( A device that makes various meals from simple proteins )
(http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5478/foodsynthesizer.jpg)
The wacky "food replicator" in Star Trek was pure make-believe. It stored 3D scans of the molecular structure of drinks and meals, then miraculously assembled individual molecules into these foods in seconds. That technology is way beyond our horizons, but a NASA-funded study is about to look into a simpler option - a compact cooking machine that will create a larderful of familiar foods from a limited range of space-friendly ingredients.
Providing astronauts with healthy, appetizing and diverse meals from materials that can be easily stored and transported into space, is a critical ongoing problem in space travel and exploration. Here, we propose a radical new approach to creating meals in space. Our ultimate aim is to design a portable food preparation and production machine, capable of creating food items that emulate the taste, texture, smell and appearance of any desired meal, using a finite and pre-defined combination of ingredients and cooking techniques. Rather than attempting to transport and store a large variety of foods from earth, appetizing, high-quality and varied meals will be created
from a small, standardized set of known ingredients. While such technology may seem to be an impossible dream, reminiscent of the food replicators seen on Star Trek, recent innovative work has shown that developing familiar seeming foods from novel and unconventional ingredients may in fact be a realistic possibility (Bernstein 2005).
Icosystem Corporation, Cambridge - http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studies/abstracts/1072Bonabeau.pdf (http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studies/abstracts/1072Bonabeau.pdf)
[...]In this short paper we describe a simple machine that can be used to make most any food for which it has a suitable "receipe". This machine makes very nutritious food, that further satisfies the visceral needs of good taste, and enjoyment. Further, it is really quite a simple machine that most likely could be built with quite simple nanotechnology. [...]
[...]The food synthesizer is composed of an array of small food pixel generators. Each pixel generator is a small vertical tube that can produce a microscopically small component of a meal. Each tube is a square base with a central hole about one micron in diameter. These tubes are joined together into a large circular array about the diameter of a dinner plate.
Above the tubes are approximately twenty layers of horizontal supply tubes. Each supply tube has a t-joint and valve, that allows a computer control system to inject the contents of the supply tube into the vertical pixel generator tube. These twenty layers of supply tube are feed under pressure from a central cynlinder, containing twenty or so different food components.
The top supply tube contains a supply of small indigestable fiber packets, each a cube a little over a micron on each side. These fiber packets are pushed under pressure down the vertical tubes, and emerge out the end, landing on the plate. As it progresses down the vertical tube, the various horizontal supply tubes inject a variety of chemicals into it. [...]
You can read more here: A Nanotech Based Food Synthesizer - http://laura-web.tripod.com/laura-web/id6.html (http://laura-web.tripod.com/laura-web/id6.html)
Can you imagine the advantages of this device in Mars colonization?
Why is NASA/ESA interested in it? It's cheaper to make high quality food on-site than send it there.
Morover: it's healthy, it's tasty, it's fresh, it's Extremely Efficient, you can chose what you want to eat...and more!
As a source for the protein....it's most likely algae. Easy to grow, they use little space and they have high nutrient-rate.
(http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/8021/foodsynthesizer2.jpg)
"The amazing food replicator" - New Scientist - http://people.icoserver.com/users/eric/New_Scientist_food_replicator.pdf (http://people.icoserver.com/users/eric/New_Scientist_food_replicator.pdf)
"Customizable, Reprogrammable, Food Preparation, Production and Invention System - Final Report" - http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studies/final_report/1072Bonabeau.pdf (http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studies/final_report/1072Bonabeau.pdf)
Power Point Presentation - http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/meetings/fellows/mar06/1072Bonabeau.pdf (http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/meetings/fellows/mar06/1072Bonabeau.pdf)
... http://www.coopernundrums.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/star-trek-food-synthesizer.jpg (http://www.coopernundrums.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/star-trek-food-synthesizer.jpg)
(Hehe...)