Opinion: A Martian menu that could transform how we eat on Earth

Editor’s Note: Evan Fraser is director of Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, Canada. Lenore Newman is director of Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, Canada. They are co-authors of a new book, “Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth.” The views expressed in this commentary are their own. View more opinion on CNN.

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What might humans eat on Mars? With space agencies including NASA and China’s National Space Administration hoping to send crewed missions to Mars within the next two decades, and tech billionaires like Elon Musk developing plans to colonize the red planet, feeding a Martian community would be a key question to solve.

With a round-trip taking over a year, Mars is much too far for takeout. And it costs $10,000 to lift a single pound of material off Earth, which means space explorers would not be able to bring their own supplies either. If humanity is ever to make it on the red planet, we will have to develop self-sustaining systems to produce food in one of the harshest environments imaginable.

Prepping a Martian meal would be be one of the most technically challenging problems our species has ever confronted. Off Earth, every molecule of water, every scrap of organic matter and every photon of energy is a vital resource that cannot be wasted. A community on Mars would be exposed to punishing radiation and temperatures that could range from minus 220 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Tasty and nutritious meals would be crucial to the psychological as well as the physical health of space pioneers.

But it would be worth the effort. The technology that would allow us to sustain life on Mars could help solve some of our most pressing problems.

Let’s walk through our vision of what a resident of the red planet would eat on a typical day – and how the technology needed to produce that food could benefit life here on Earth.

Our Martian starts their day with a high-protein chocolate chip breakfast bar, washed down with a cup of coffee.

Coffee on Mars would be like coffee on Earth, either…