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Post by smkndofpnutdssrt on Sept 5, 2008 22:57:38 GMT -5
Just a random thought I had today. If the humans don't have plants, nor animals (I don't think), what do they use to make all those cupcakes in a cup? Because everything we eat has to come from some natural source. It can't just come from nowhere...
Any thoughts?
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Post by trashbag on Sept 5, 2008 22:59:45 GMT -5
Well, I know this might sound a bit disgusting, but they may have... you know... recycled the food. From various sources, like... um... well...
Hey, it was a 700 year cruise that was supposed to last 5 years, it's possible...
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Post by Kingdomheartsora on Sept 5, 2008 23:00:15 GMT -5
I had thought about this while seeing the movie, maybe they were seeing this coming and stocked up all materials needed, while Earth was still able to sustain life, they may have plucked some trees, and they may have a biodome, to support the trees.
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Post by smkndofpnutdssrt on Sept 5, 2008 23:03:42 GMT -5
If they had a biodome, they probably could have used them years later to bring oxygen back to the earth, couldn't they? They plant them and POOF. Everything is hunky dory.
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bkim
AUTO
Rabbits! Plinkety Plinkety Plink!
Posts: 271
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Post by bkim on Sept 5, 2008 23:32:17 GMT -5
Their food is probably almost entirely composed of carbohydrates (sugars). These carbohydrates are probably synthesized from sources of carbon dioxide and water by artificial photosynthetic pigments and isolated by lab robots on the Axiom somewhere.
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Post by vanessajoyce on Sept 5, 2008 23:51:22 GMT -5
Yeah, I'd say all completely artificial created stuff. Didn't the Enterprise have some kind of "regenerative food" production? (By default, I go back to Star Trek for my "sci fi science".)
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Post by smkndofpnutdssrt on Sept 6, 2008 2:49:45 GMT -5
My big question now is how can the humans survive without all the essential nutrients that come from plants and animals like protein, Vitamin C, things like that?
Sorry, my dad is a health nut. It rubbed off on me.
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Post by vanessajoyce on Sept 6, 2008 10:46:16 GMT -5
Of course, I could take the easy way out and say that by this time they've figured out how to create those basic nutrients artificially -- but that sounds like too easy of an explanation.
When I was last at DisneyWorld, they had an area where they were growing plants using experimental techniques -- I don't remember everything about it, but I do remember they were using robotic technology to maintain the plants. Maybe the Axiom has an area where some kind of elemental compounds are generated?
I'm really interested in this thread because I don't know a lot about nutritional science and I would like to know if anyone has any ideas -- either from sci fi or in real life science -- as to how this could work.
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Post by MidgardDragon on Sept 6, 2008 11:31:04 GMT -5
Definitely regenerative food, IMO.
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thor
Hello Dolly
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Post by thor on Sept 6, 2008 13:27:27 GMT -5
Axiom could depend on micro-biotic food supply. Essentially big vats of bacteria, yeast, and the like fed with certain nutrients, maybe even gasses collected from nebulae which we see Axiom next to. In any case, because of this, the resulting food will essentially have the consistency of mush, which leads to everything-in-a-cup.
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bkim
AUTO
Rabbits! Plinkety Plinkety Plink!
Posts: 271
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Post by bkim on Sept 6, 2008 15:57:39 GMT -5
Hmm, I didn't think of that, but it's true that organic compounds are found all over the universe, including in nebulae and passing meteors. If you can manipulate these, you get nutrition, or at least enough to survive on.
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Post by Norwesterner on Sept 6, 2008 22:55:37 GMT -5
Just as desert cities like Las Vegas are even now able to recycle virtually 100% of their waste water to potable or drinking water standards; I would imagine that the Axiom and other BNL Starliners would have to have worked out a way of recycling virtually all organic materials and wastes back into nutrients — as to sustain a population of roughly 2,000 people for centuries in space would likely require too much square footage for actual food to be grown, even hydroponically (i.e. in liquid nutrients without using soil.)
But given that they reduced all meals into liquids in a cup; I think BNL actually simplified the number of steps needed to recycle organic materials back into nutrients . . . as they didn't have to process it into the form of actual foods, other than perhaps adding some artificial flavorings. A neat solution that I could easily see being embraced by a corporation like BNL!
That hypothetical recycling of organics necessity though begs the question — why didn't they similarly recycle their non-organic wastes, instead of cubing those up and jettisoning them into space as was depicted in the film? At the rate and volumes they were shown to be throwing their garbage into space, that cumulative disposed waste would likely have roughly equalled the volume of the entire ship on a yearly basis! That leaves me wondering where they'd get the raw materials to generate all the waste they were throwing into space. Perhaps the Axiom was near the nebula, sucking in replacement raw materials somehow.
But otherwise, it leaves me with a logical conundrum that's difficult to rationalize, given what was depicted in the film!
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Post by Calamity EVE on Sept 7, 2008 2:13:45 GMT -5
Well, they are getting their food from a "regenerative food buffet", according to the status report that the Captain unenthusiastically runs through with Sigourney Wea... the Axiom Computer.  Is this some sort of dorky "Star Trek" nod? I noticed a few groups of people finding it really, really funny in the theater, and was wondering if it was just a reference that I wasn't getting. |
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