Sure but how bad are the sandwiches? On an interplanetary flight, it could make all the difference...
Is British rail the only national railway still to have sandwich ladies on the trains? I can't see how this would be efficient... As to the patent: sems a waste of time as the patent will lapse before the technologies exist to make the damn thing work to begin with. But someone was probably on a lot of acid when they submitted it so its all OK and the Scientologists are probably building it in a secret bunker at Tom Cruise's house.
Speculative patents for engineering applications are quite common, the idea is to find a niche in the market to exploit when similar new IP enter the market. Think of it as leverage. Its why keeping trade secrets secret in industry is so important.
