MOSCOW. Aug 4 (Interfax-AVN) - The development of long-storage food products for manned flights to Mars would take 5-6 years, Viktor Dobrovolsky, the chief designer of space food products for the Russian space program and the head of the food concentrate and special food technology research institute, told Interfax-AVN.
"We are not working on this so far. I think the Americans have not yet started this, either. It's too early to work on this, because a flight to Mars is possible no sooner than in the 2030s, and the development of food products would take 5-6 years," Dobrovolsky said in commenting on reports by a number of U.S. media alleging that NASA has started creating rations for flights to Mars.
The current U.S. space program is not envisioning a manned flight to Mars.