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• HOUSTON (AP) -- Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1950s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the origins of U.S. space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking.
• Their mission: Build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.
• The menu must sustain a group of six to eight astronauts, keep them healthy and happy and also offer a broad array of food. That's no simple feat considering it will likely take six months to get to the Red Planet, astronauts will have to stay there 18 months and then it will take another six months to return to Earth. Imagine having to shop for a family's three-year supply of groceries all at once and having enough meals planned in advance for that length of time.
• "Mars is different just because it's so far away," said Maya Cooper, senior research scientist with Lockheed Martin who is leading the efforts to build the menu. "We don't have the option to send a vehicle every six months and send more food as we do for International Space Station."
• Astronauts who travel to the space station have a wide variety of food available to them, some 100 or so different options, in fact. But it is all pre-prepared and freeze-dried with a shelf life of at least two years. And while astronauts make up a panel that tastes the food and gives it a final OK on Earth before it blasts off, the

lack of gravity means smell -- and taste -- is impaired. So the food is bland.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Second chances can be rare in politics, but President Barack Obama found Kiss Cam and an impatient crowd to be just the right motivation.
• Obama and his wife, Michelle, were taking in Monday night's USA Basketball exhibition game when the Verizon Center's "Kiss Cam" turned its eye their way. Their image on the huge arena screen prompted the crowd to cheer -- a not-so-subtle hint that Obama plant one on the first lady.
• Both smiled, but Obama just put his arm around his wife as the game resumed.

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