Crew Food

I wrote this up a while back.

The original TV dinners, with meat, vegetable, mashed potato, and fruit or dessert, was about 12 inches by 10 inches by 1 inch tall. If you throw in a 2 inch by 12 inch by 1 inch detachable utility pack with eating utensils, condiments, and beverage powders (or even liquid concentrates), it makes a 12 inch by 12 inch by 1 inch complete meal.

For 1 person for 32 days at 3 meals a day, a stack of TV dinners with varied breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals would only be 96 inches tall (8 feet). If you want to make it square, it's about a 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot pack. Easily manageable.

A Scout/Courier with double occupancy (8 people) could stack them in each stateroom (under each bunk), assuming they are shelf stable and just need to be heated. Otherwise a special place has to be made in the Galley or Cargo Hold.

The original price of a TV Dinner was $0.98, adjusted to 1Cr, so only about 96Cr per person for 32 days (or 768Cr for an 8 person crew).

I'm sure by the 57th century, there would be shelf-stable standardized food modules about the size of a TV dinner, made just for Starships or Travellers. A 12 inch wide by 1 inch tall by 10 inch deep food module heater would probably be standard in any Starship Galley.

A High Passage meal would probably be bigger and a lot different. But just think about how good a Tech Level-15 TV Dinner™ would taste! And TV could also stand for TraVeller.

So:

Food Module Pack
1 person, 32 days (96 meals)
2' x 2' x 2'
96Cr

Food Module Pallet
8 person, 32 days (768 meals)
4' x 4' x 4'
768Cr