New Mars Forums

I'd never thought to put fish outside...I'd always assumed that they would go in the same greenhouse where plants were being grown, with thier waste possibly being used as fertilizer. It may sound gross to our palettes, but in a limited space you could also raise snails to eat. Besides the well known french proclivity for them- regular wild varieties are eaten by people in the mexican jungles. My sister was very surprised the first time she was served a snail taco. Snails can definately be fed on waste and they grow like the dickens, and I bet they could even live in zero g, what with thier magical ability to stick to flat surfaces. And unlike other, shall we say, more developed animals, they can live in very high densities without it being cruel to them, or having them become aggressive towards one another.

Currently I don't think there is a lot of interest (outside of that of a few scientists), as most people find the idea of eating lab grown meat distasteful, but I do remember reading once that scientists were able to grow fish tissue (goldfish!) from a small sample. It's very far from perfected, but I've always thought that if people did start to settle mars, that would stimulate an interest in that sort of research. I found an article:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3208

I realize it's always good to plan as if technological breakthroughs which MIGHT happen, won't, and it may be that the first settlements will grow meat the old fashioned way. But I don't think it's unrealistic to assume that this technology won't be given a serious kick in the butt funding wise and interest wise once people actually start GOING places in space, and that it may end up being useful. It would certainly save on space.