Page 166 - MY STORY

Shielding the entire living quarters would engender way

too much weight gain. Would there be sufficient warning
and time to get to the shelter? We think we knew how to
handle the nuclear reactor radiation issues, but we had

very little data on long-term cosmic radiation effects on
humans, and to this day, this problem remains an open
issue.

Consumables for Humans
We needed a lot of stuff to maintain life in the multiyear

life cycle of our Mars exploration. We had not yet figured
out how much we would carry as cargo, how much we

might be able to grow in-situ, or how to recycle waste for
human consumption. One example emanating from our
Advanced Program folk was the issue of food staples.
What could we do if the return trip from Mars to Earth

started late or the trip home took longer than expected?
Believe it or not, these crazies had an idea that might

solve that problem.

There are always pieces and bits in a manned space

structural environment that were not structurally critical.
One group of these entities were the equipment and
storage racks that simply held stuff in place. Hey – no

prob! Just make those racks out of edible material with