[nduffy]

So what would the MP teams have in their food stores? The best solution I could come up with is freeze dried meals. Mountain House has been making food stuffs and have mastered the art of it. Once freeze dried, double packaged and protected from O2 and the elements these stores can last decades. The tradition MRE only has at most 10 years under ideal conditions. Dehydrated meals may go 20 years as well. I know that recently a 30 plus year old can from Mountain House was opened and sampled and had no taste or spoilage issues. So if stored in a bolthole/ bunker or cache with the atmosphere stabilized, I could easily see these going for the duration of the teams sleep. They could easily have several weeks worth of meals stowed on their vehicle and even several months worth stowed at various cache points. Of course there is the water issue, but filters and storage take care of that. You can easily store 30-50 gallons of water for drinking and food prep on your vehicle. If water is an issue, there are ways to make water as well. At a company I use to work for they had a water tank that drew its water from the atmosphere via humidity. It could do several gallons a day. It was pretty cool. Even had a filter system and a UV light in the storage tank to stop bacterial contamination. I do believe they use similar tech on the ISS as well. A small version could be installed in a vehicle because the crew would be giving off moisture from sweating and breathing. it would add up collectively and would provide a small bonus of guaranteed safe water for any needs.
Any thoughts?