The Europa Fish & Chips Shop

[Gian]

Scientists theorize that there may be a big subterranean ocean of liquid salt water on Europa, and there is a proposal to send a space probe which could drill down to it.

In such an ocean there would be presumably no light, and I don't know if there'd be any CO₂  or what temperature the water would be, but by introducing autotrophs from our own oceans would it be possible for explorers to start a food chain, gradually introducing higher species culminating in fish?

This would permanently give explorers and settlers something to eat, although they'd have to have chips sent up from Earth.

Cheerz GIAN 🙂

[Danijel Gorupec]

I guess there is some hope that some hydrothermal vents organisms from Earth could find a nice spot also in Europa ocean. Sure, I would support doing this only if we prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the chosen world is sterile. And I still very much hope that Europa is not sterile.

Another guess is that organisms that are left to evolve on another planet would soon turn inedible* - or better said, not directly edible, but with some advanced scientific cooking we should still be able to derive some nutrients and energy from them.

(* pigs probably can never turn inedible, no reason to panic. But other, less palatable animals, probably will incorporate some poisonous chemistry into their metabolism as an adaptation to foreign worlds)

 

[MigL]

Pick up your chips on the way to Europa.
Matt Damon is growing potatoes on Mars.
( at least, he was, 5 years ago )   

[zapatos]

2 hours ago, Gian said:

This would permanently give explorers and settlers something to eat, although they'd have to have chips sent up from Earth.

 

Back when sailors were exploring the oceans they would often leave pigs, goats and other animals on islands knowing that they or other future explorers would be able to stop by for a quick pulled pork sandwich. I'm unsure of how they handled the chip conundrum. 

[J.C.MacSwell]

On 12/9/2020 at 6:42 PM, MigL said:

Pick up your chips on the way to Europa.
Matt Damon is growing potatoes on Mars.
( at least, he was, 5 years ago )   

I'll have to remember to pick up a chip off the old block.

50+ years ago, I was told I had the potential to grow potatoes in my ears, but nothing so far...

[Gian]

Thanks for the above replies.

Hi Zapatos, with a pulled pork sarnie I could do without chips. But yes you have a really good point. Sci-fi often pictures settlers arriving on new worlds and then starting agriculture to support themselves. But in our solar system, maybe it would be a good idea to start producing food on other planets of the solar system before people get there.

And if someone sent a crate of pork chops to Titan, with her surface temperature of -290°F, I bet they'd still be edible even if explorers didn't get there for another ten years.