Star Trek: Beyond (Burger).

My wonderful wife Karli has been a vegetarian on and off over the years, and as such she was quite pleased to finally lay her hands on a container of Just Egg, a cholesterol-free mung-bean-based egg substitute manufactured by 2011 startup Eat Just.  Just Egg also comes in a pre-cooked and folded format that can just be dropped into a toaster, but Karli has been holding out for the liquid version, which finally became available in Canada at the end of October 2021. 

It's obviously a popular product, at least based on our ability to find anything other than an empty space in the dairy substitute sections of the local supermarkets for the last few months, but a spur-of-the-moment trip to a Walmart Superstore for cheddar bay biscuit mix (long story) also paid off with a single 12-ounce bottle of Just Egg, which had its first trial run this morning.

Speaking as someone who has not pursued a vegetarian lifestyle at any point in their life, I have to say that my sample bite of scrambled Just Egg was excellent.  If anything, it might have tasted a little better than a chicken egg:  Eat Just has obviously invested a lot of time and science in reverse engineering egg consistency and flavour, and the result is impressive.  If we can find a reliable source, it could easily replace chicken eggs  in our household, at least for breakfast - I'm not entirely convinced that mung-bean cake batter would produce the same results as an egg-based recipe, and the list of recipes on the Eat Just website is suspiciously lacking in baked goods.

Why do I bring this up on my science fiction blog?  Because the astronauts of the future will very likely be vegetarians, if not for moral reasons then for practical ones, and as such developments like Just Egg will have a prominent place in their diet.

A plant-based diet is the ideal solution to space travel over long distances - and long timespans.  Pending the development of warp drive or some other way of cheating Einstein,* successful space exploration beyond our solar system will require the creation of a miniature biosphere that will rely upon hydroponic systems that will not only produce oxygen, but also provide fresh food on an ongoing basis for the trip.  Practical difficulties regarding low or zero gravity aside, it's hard to imagine that having a herd of cows** on a starship would be practical over the long run, whereas carefully managed crops would provide a sustainable food source on an ongoing basis for a multi-generational star ship.

The question is whether or not substitutes like Just Egg or Beyond Meat would survive past the first few generations of starfarers.  After all, both of these products are bridge technologies intended to mimic an animal product that would be completely unknown to the children of the original crew except as stories, and pictures in the computer archive.  Ultimately the whole terminology of scrambled eggs and hamburgers would become anachronistic in the same way that saying you're dialing a phone number or saving a file by clicking on a floppy disk icon are the last remnants of obsolete processes.  

All that being said, it may well be the start of a kinder, gentler philosophy of life for those future astronauts when it actually is possible to make an omelette without breaking anything.

- Sid

* Star Trek cheats twice.  Not only does Starfleet rely on warp drive to outwit the speed of light, it also uses a variant of transporter technology to replicate a full range of food using stored templates.  Presumably replicated steak and eggs for breakfast is without guilt, but you have to wonder how the inhabitants of the Federation feel about people who still consume food that comes directly from the source, as it were.  Hmmm...there was that less than successful omelette party in Ryker's suite in that one episode...

** Or a herd of chickens, although I suspect that chickens would be more excited than cows by their sudden ability to fly in a low or zero-G environment.

That moment when you HAVE to represent.

I mean, really, imagine that you're waiting for the elevator, you just happen to have a black Sharpie™with you - you just can't leave without fixing this, right? 

- Sid

Murder on the Lunar Express.

The Apollo Murders was one of the first things that I put on my 2021 Geekmas list - how could I not want to read an alternate history space program murder mystery suspense novel written by an ex-astronaut and set against the backdrop of a final Moon landing made by Apollo 18, not 17?

That being said, I'm sorry to say that I didn't completely love Chris Hadfield's first foray into fiction, although I also have to say that it's not bad, I simply had extremely high hopes for this book that it didn't manage to achieve.  It's certainly competently written, Hadfield obviously knows how to put words on paper - I particularly liked the first-person prologue in which the protagonist, Kaz Zemeckis, loses his eye in a flying accident - but for me it didn't quite succeed as a suspense novel.  

As you would expect, the technical aspects of preparing and launching a mission to the Moon are impeccably detailed and accurate, to the point where I have to wonder if less dedicated fans of the space program might lose interest.*  There's a strong flavour of Tom Clancy in the late Cold War period storyline - not quite with the same degree of conflict that Clancy brought to his novels, but plausibly dramatic in its motivations and machinations.  

Much of the action in the second half of the novel involves the villain of the story, and whereas I appreciate the importance of what's going on during that part of the book, I wish that Hadfield had found a way to better combine that action with the hero of the piece.  Zemeckis, the one-eyed guitar-playing ex-pilot turned slightly reluctant government operative, just isn't on the centre stage as much as I wanted him to be, and I would also have liked to have seen him more involved in the process of discovering the identity of the traitor in the astronaut program.  Zemeckis does make some deductions on his own, but overall the path from suspicion to suspect is more circumstantial than definitive.

I don't for a moment want to suggest that Hadfield should abandon his new niche as a writer of astronaut suspense novels, given his undeniable writing skills and his uniquely comprehensive and personal knowledge of the hardware and processes involved.  I view The Apollo Murders as an acceptable and well-executed freshman piece, and I have no doubt that the Commander will only improve as he continues his new career.

With the possibility of a second novel on the table, I have a modest suggestion for Mr. Hadfield.  NASA has announced that the International Space Station is going to be retired in 2030 by having it leave orbit and make a fiery descent into the Pacific Ocean, far from land.  Chris, in the unlikely event that you're reading this, how about setting a climactic struggle in the abandoned ISS as it begins its return to Earth?  I suspect that NASA has thoroughly modelled the phases of the space station's destruction as it plunges toward the ocean, and with that information I think it's safe to say that you have the required amount of insider knowledge to make the scene work, and for the hero to make a plausible escape at the last possible minute.  Now all we need is a reason for them being there - which I am happy to leave in Hadfield's capable and creative hands.

- Sid

* On the other hand, if you're not a fan of the space program, why are you reading something called The Apollo Murders written by an ex-astronaut?