Forget MRE's... The Army is developing a 3d foodarackacycle !

Marine Corps Times

It sounds like science fiction, but the Army is taking a real look at 3-D printing food, an idea that may lead to customizable meals for the battlefield with nutrient yields tailor-made to the individual service member, on demand.

“There really are no 3-D food printers printing out complex foods, so we would start at the very beginning,” said Lauren Oleksyk, who leads the Food Processing and Technology Team in the Defense Department’s Combat Feeding Directorate, at the Army’s labs in Natick, Massachusetts.

Researchers at Natick Labs say generating rations on-site would be a cheaper, more efficient alternative to bringing food in from overseas. The effort is in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Labs, and has the support of the other services.

All I can say is WOW they will probably spend millions researching this only to end up a high tech way to serve Jar Heads their famous Gooey Gray Glop.

All joking aside ---a lot of this 'way out there' future tech--- never would have come into being if not for DOD and military projects... I mean that's how we ended up with the internet after all... as a spin off of a military project...

I'm sure given enough time and money TPTB will have a working 3d foodarackacycle like they want... But will they ever be able to make it small enough to put in a pack....

As for taste... Who cares...Everyone knows we Marines will eat stuff that can make a Billy-Goat puke

originally posted by: HardCorps

Marine Corps Times

As for taste... Who cares...Everyone knows we Marines will eat stuff that can make a Billy-Goat puke

I've eaten things that were probably worse than Billy-Goat puke.
Man's gotta eat if he wants to go.

a reply to: skunkape23

Trust me...
If I can eat a Veggie Omelet MRE and like it.
I can eat anything

originally posted by: HardCorps
a reply to: skunkape23

Trust me...
If I can eat a Veggie Omelet MRE and like it.
I can eat anything

I've thrown grasshoppers and june bugs into a chili-mac just to give it some texture.
A little extra protein doesn't hurt.

a reply to: HardCorps
Maybe it will lead them to food replicators like star trek, throw in any organic materials, few tree limbs what is around breaks it down to basic structure and create a in a new form.

a reply to: HardCorps

I have 3D printers in my Pre=Engineering lab. The only problem I see is nozzles plugging up, or mechanical or computer glitches causing it to break down. If that happens, there's going to be a lot of hungry marines losing their cool and going hungry on the battle field.

As far as the taste is concern, we don't eat our 3D plastic parts, but I can't imagine it tasting anything close to the real thing. It may look like a hamburger and feel like a hamburger, but I doubt it will taste like one.

I imagine the first fielded model being like a star trek replicator that creates any food you want but it all tastes like the veggie omelet MRE, even ice cream. mmm

a reply to: HardCorps

Interesting concept...although such "delicacies" on the front lines seems a bit silly a concept.

I'll stick with the Tasty Wheat....it doesn't bulk up and sit heavy in the stomach.

3d printed food are real right now

dont think you,ll eat something from it but hey it's already here...

www.nasa.gov...

One day an entire set of generations who watched our future on Star trek will be dead and gone and no one will know how we were all lied to,it is no coincidence that nearly every technology on that show are now realitys,I pray that the future generations can know what was done to us,we will never know how far our generations could have taken humanity but for the lies we were told and the imprisonment we have endured.

Humanity has been wronged and History needs to record that.

a reply to: one4all

Council of Nine my friend. Everything we see in sci-fi somehow comes true or is promised to us in the future. When the rich and powerful are behind it, it's no longer entertainment. It becomes foreknowledge for all to share.

originally posted by: EyesOpenMouthShut
I imagine the first fielded model being like a star trek replicator that creates any food you want but it all tastes like the veggie omelet MRE, even ice cream. mmm

I think you just invented the new flavor for Ben and Jerry...'Starship Replicator Veggie Omelette MRE."
I prefer my monkey brains cooked.

Interesting article. For now I'll continue to savor memories of MRE meatballs with BBQ sauce, chicken ala king and beef stew with a side of ranger pudding. Come to think of it, how about spices we can download and print out in the field--Old Bay for instance?

originally posted by: Yeahkeepwatchingme
a reply to: one4all

Council of Nine my friend. Everything we see in sci-fi somehow comes true or is promised to us in the future. When the rich and powerful are behind it, it's no longer entertainment. It becomes foreknowledge for all to share.

Or it could be evidence that the Council of nine simply knows that Humanity creates its own reality based upon anything it believes it can do,anything Humanity can concieve of and visualise it can create.That WE are all stakeholder partners in a cumulative reality and future which WE have 100% control over as CO-CREATORS.

There is no way that science can figure out the configuration of food chemistry and replicate it properly. Food chemistry is extremely complex and there are many chemicals in every food. Each chemical interacts with our body and cells in certain ways. This food will not sustain us and allow us to be individuals. What they are trying to create is people they can control, you could accomplish this if you controlled the chemistry. Perfect place to test this concept, on soldiers. They have always experimented on the soldiers. Men that age can survive a lot of toxins.

a reply to: HardCorps

It's a great idea...many of us eat balance bars, protein bars, protein shakes, ensures etc....this stuff might be better than the MRE that soldiers indulge in now...I'm assuming that cleaning this would be a problem after a while along with the bugs it would attract on the ground

a reply to: rickymouse

Of course they can figure it out...we force feed inmates in Guantanamo....this is sustaining those on hunger strikes for extended periods....you think they are blending up steaks? Nope, the stuff is similar to those dietary drinks meant for people who cannot eat solid food...

I don't think they are literally printing hamburgers but food that may taste similar but chemically different...

THE ARMY? They can screw up beef jerky M&Ms have YOU TRIED an MRE? Also LORD knows what they would PUT in it too.NOTHING provable of course like my NIFTY gulf war injections that turned out to be experimental anthrax with a squalene oil adjuvant that is killing us.

a reply to: HardCorps

But you'd just have to lug an equal weight of 3d printer cartridges full of organic matter. This isn't energy to.matter technology after all.

So my question is, will they be feeding the Marines their own excrement, or the corpses of the enemy?

Now you know why the soylent made of people only comes in green I guess.