an article from Nasa about Veggies

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Good eating: A three-layer vegetable spread so impressed representatives at NASA's Food Technology Commercial Space Center in Iowa that they awarded its creators the top prize this week in an annual product-development competition.

Designed by four Penn State University students, Veg@eez is made from a number of processed vegetables and spices, including spinach, chard and sweet potatoes. The spread was specifically designed for space travel -- meaning that it's easy to prepare, convenient to eat and can sit on a shelf for long periods without spoiling.

Long-life vegetable products like Veg@eez will be increasingly important to NASA as it examines ways to meet President Bush's goal of putting men on Mars. Unlike the crew of the International Space Station, which regularly receives fresh garlic, onion and tomatoes from an unmanned supply vessel, astronauts on a three-year mission to Mars would have no such option because of their distance from the Earth.

In addition to solving the problem of long-term storage, NASA faces an issue with odor control. In the past, the space agency has sent everything from nectarines to jalapeno peppers up with astronauts. However, bananas and oranges quickly fell out of favor because of their strong smell, which is difficult to filter out of the cramped quarters of a space shuttle or other craft.

Book your flight early: Pilot Mike Melvill became the first human to reach the edge of space aboard a privately funded aircraft Thursday when he blasted to an altitude of 211,400 feet above the Mojave Desert aboard Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne.

The aircraft is the front-runner in the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition, which seeks to jump-start private space travel. Traveling at Mach 2.5, or more than twice the speed of sound, SpaceShipOne came within 25 miles of the 62.1-mile height requirement for the X Prize.

To win the prize, an organization would have to propel the same three-person spacecraft beyond that height twice in two weeks, returning the craft safely to Earth each time. The competition's backers -- which include millionaire and one-time space station astronaut Dennis Tito and Charles Lindbergh's grandson Erik Lindbergh -- have said they expect that to happen as early as this summer.