Eating in space is a little different than it is here on Earth. The lack of gravity means that many types of food would float when out of our atmosphere. To try to counteract this foods have been developed ingeniously to try to reduce such difficulties.
Back in the 1960’s astronauts had a rough time when it came to choice of food and the manner in which they had to eat it. Food came in the form of mushy paste out of tubes and was sucked through a straw. Luckily for the astronauts of today, things have improved on the cuisine front. Now they eat with a knife, fork and spoon like the rest of us, and have more variety of foodstuffs and textures to choose from.
Hot Sauce
One of the favorite foods of astronauts, that they are able to consume in space, are those with plenty of flavor such as hot sauce and mustard. This is because the aroma of foods, which allows humans to taste, tend to float away before reaching the astronauts scent receptors in their noses. Plenty of tangy flavor needs to be added to their meals for them to get much enjoyment out of eating it.
Up in space people generally eat and drink up to 70% less than they do when back home. The lack of ability to taste food so easily can account for part of this, plus their bodies need to adapt to their unusual environment before their appetite can settle down again.
What Astronauts Add the Sauce to.
Some foods need to be re-hydrated before they can be consumed. Pasta and cheese sauce or seafood are examples of this type of food. The astronaut’s add water to such meals via a tube and it takes up to thirty minutes before they are fully re-hydrated.
Food can also come in the consistency of tinned food, only instead of being packaged in tins it comes in pouches. The contents are much the same as what we may get in tins from shops.
Food isn’t as boring as it used to be for space crews. They can have chocolate, brownies, fruits, cereals, peanut butter, candy or meat, to name but a few of the choices they have to pick from.
As well as hot sauces to add flavor to food they can also have salt and pepper. However, these have to be in liquid form to stop them from floating about and possibly getting into the astronaut’s eyes or air vents in the shuttle.
Meat has to be exposed to radiation before being taken into space so that it has a longer shelf life. Astronauts can enjoy turkey or chicken dinners while up there to remind them of home, although it’s never going to be as good as a home cooked meal.
Equipment
Space shuttles are equipped with forced air convection ovens which stay constantly at a temperature of 160 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that hot food and drinks can be enjoyed.
When the astronauts eat their food containers have to be attached with fabric fasteners to a tray. The tray itself has to be secured too, and so may be attached to the astronaut’s lap or to a wall.
Food pouches need to be disposed of when they are finished with. For this purpose there is a trash compactor inside the space shuttle which helps to make waste take up less valuable room.
The food yet to be eaten is stored in locker trays and is organised so that each meal encountered is in the right order to be consumed next.
Who Decides the Diet
In 1965 astronaut Guss Grisson was the very first man to eat a corned beef sandwich in space that was given to him by someone else. Nowadays astronaut’s food is a less casual affair and diet and nutrition are taken seriously. Food is carefully planned to contain all of the vitamins, minerals and calories that each crew member requires as an individual.
Training
If you think that you cant possibly train to eat in space then think again. The astronaut’s of the future can get an idea of what it’s like during trips in K3-135’s. The pilots get the aircraft to do a movement known as the ‘parabola’ by climbing steeply and then dropping suddenly. They do this repeatedly and the crew inside the aircraft get to experience what micro gravity is like. Sometimes they eat when on such training flights so that they know just what to expect when up in space.
Eating in space has come along way since it first began fifty or so years ago, although the hot dogs, bacon squares, canned peaches, sugar cookies and coffee that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong consumed in the Apollo 11 in 1969 can’t have been too much of a hardship.
Sources; http://www.spaceflight.nas.gov
http://www.spacetoday.org
http://www.science.howstuffworks.com
http://www.youtube.com
http://www.teacher.scholastic.com
