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Okay, it is a Monday, but the point stands.
Another quote I have seen (paraphrase) – if you always give your best, it becomes your average.
You don’t, can’t, and shouldn’t always give 100%, because then there is nothing left for you; nothing left to recharge from. If you eat 100% of the grain, there is nothing to plant for the next harvest. Keep something back so you can grow.
“Now try a little lighting, see if you can hit that yacht’s mast,” Storm Front encouraged his daughter while he manipulated the wind to pile the water into the pier area. It was tricky to keep it in the million-dollar area and leave the boaties’ docks safe, still he managed to sink one of the overpriced penis replacements and his SCUBA minions were salvaging the wreck below the water.
His six-year-old screwed up her face concentrating. Usually, her powers were stored behind a FireWall Collar™ for good reason, but she had been working hard for the last month on control since they signed up for “Take your daughter to work day”. On Friday she would need to present her day in front of a class of first graders.
“Remember static goes bottom to top then top to bottom.”
When the sonic boom thunder announced her success, the villain jumped midair beside the wharf warehouse where he had installed her as chewing gum and flying was a little much for her young brain. Below the yacht became little more than kindling. Not the best for robbery, but an amazing feat. Under his proud pappa praise of her success, his daughter glowed.
(words 200; first published 4/19/2026)
Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind
ID 303497299 | Nasa Food © Stockvectorwin | Dreamstime.com
What is one thing all humans have in common?
We eat. Nom, nom, nom.
We need food at home, we need food at work, we need food at school, we need food at play, we need food on Earth…
We need food in space!
Most of us are familiar with the story of Tang (Cordell). And astronaut ice cream, a freeze-dried delight. Many of the modern hiking food packaging has come from innovations of getting food from here to orbit. Food weighs a lot, and humans, especially active humans executing space walks in Earth’s orbit, need a lot of food.
At this time, humanity has a good handle on getting take-out for field trips into orbit – from tubular scrambled eggs to three-D printing pizza.
Next problem to crack for the noming of noms in space: long-distance food. What happens when a quick resupply with a dip down into the gravity well of humanity’s crib isn’t available? What happens when we set up shop on the moon or maybe even take a road trip to Mars? Toward this end hydroponics and aeroponics have been tested on the International Space Station (ISS), the science of feeding all of humanity and feeding the distant humanity pushing innovation on both fronts. Doing it for an isolated spaceship alone in the dark is going to required next-level food innovations for space, and the resulting science will also help feeding people whose feet stay on the ground.
To that end, NASA is in the hosting a Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table. This isn’t just recipes like they did for the 2021-2024 challenge; things that can be cooked in the particular conditions of no gravity, limited machines, air restrictions (think of all those Earth recipes with high altitude adjustments and multiple the tweaks needed by a thousand), etc. This is a full design challenge of a food system: things packed, things grown, things reused; a food system nutritious enough to prevent vitamin deficiencies and other health issues (scurvy anyone?) while not taking up too much duty time because during the long round trip everything outside the ship is going to try to kill the humans within the ship a lot, like a lot a lot.
“The challenge will officially conclude in September 2026 and has a total prize purse of $750,000.” Registration deadline is July 31, 2026. (NASA Mars to Table)
Interested in knowing even more? A small bibliography is below. I have also previously written about space food under Geeking Science: Do You Want Fries in Space and Geeking Science: In space they can’t hear you burp.
Bibliography
Cordell, Lyndsay. “Tang: The Orange Drink That Got Its Start From NASA.” Wide Open Country. 18 February 2021. (https://www.wideopencountry.com/tang-drink/ – last viewed 11/14/2023)
Hall, Loura. “NASA Back for Seconds with New Food System Design Challenge.” NASA. 13 January 2026. https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/nasa-back-for-seconds-with-new-food-system-design-challenge/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.
Jones, Paul. “Aeroponics vs Hydroponics: In-Depth Comparison.” Seeds and Spades. 30 August 2023. https://www.seedsandspades.com/aeroponics-vs-hydroponics/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.
NASA. “Deep Space Food Challenge (2021-2024).” (undated). https://www.nasa.gov/prizes-challenges-and-crowdsourcing/centennial-challenges/deep-space-food-challenge/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.
NASA. “Mars to Table Challenge.” (undated). https://www.nasa.gov/prizes-challenges-and-crowdsourcing/marstotable/ – last viewed 1/16/2026.
NASA Space Tech. “Introducing NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table.” 13 January 2026. (available on YouTube, embedded in article above)
Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind