Space Food
Space Food
The holiday season is upon us and much of the festivities revolve around food. While you decide whether to sauté or steam your green beans, let’s take a closer look at what astronauts eat while in space.
Since the start of human spaceflight, we’ve worked to improve the taste, texture and shelf life of food four our crews. Our food scientists are challenged with developing healthy menus that can meet all of the unique requirements for living and working in the extreme environment of space.
Consider the differences of living on Earth and in space. Food scientists must develop foods that will be easier to handle and consume in a microgravity environment. These food products require no refrigeration and provide the nutrition humans need to remain healthy during spaceflight.
Freeze drying food allows food to remain stable at ambient temperatures, while also significantly reducing the weight.
Fun Facts About Space Food:
Astronauts use tortillas in many of their meals
Tortillas provide an edible wrapper to keep food from floating away. Why tortillas and not bread? Tortillas make far less crumbs and can be stored easier. Bread crumbs could potentially float around and get stuck in filters or equipment.
The first food eaten by an American astronaut in space: Applesauce
The first American astronaut to eat in space dined on applesauce squeezed from a no-frills, aluminum toothpaste-like tube. Since then, food technology has cooked up better ways to prepare, package and preserve space fare in a tastier, more appetizing fashion.
All food that is sent to the space station is precooked
Sending precooked food means that it requires no refrigeration and is either ready to eat or can be prepared simply by adding water or by heating. The only exception are the fruit and vegetables stowed in the fresh food locker.
Salt and pepper are used in liquid form on the International Space Station
Seasonings like salt and pepper have to be used in liquid form and dispensed through a bottle on the space station. If they were granulated, the particles would float away before they even reached the food.
Food can taste bland in space
Some people who live in space have said that food is not the same while in microgravity. Some say that it tastes bland, some do not like their favorite foods and some love to eat foods they would never eat on Earth. We believe this phenomenon is caused by something called “stuffy head” This happens when crew member’s heads get stopped up because blood collects in the upper part of the body. For this reason, hot sauce is used A LOT on the space station to make up for the bland flavor.
Astronaut ice cream is not actually eaten on the space station
Even though astronaut ice cream is sold in many science centers and enjoyed by many people on Earth, it’s not actually sent to the space station. That said, whenever there is space in a freezer heading to orbit, the astronauts can get real ice cream onboard!
Instead of bowls there are bags and cans
Most American food is stored in sealed bags, while most Russian food is kept in cans.
With all these new facts about space food, you’ll have plenty to talk about over Thanksgiving dinner.
Here’s a picture of what the crew aboard the space station will enjoy this year:
Smoked Turkey
Candied Yams
Rehydratable Corn
Potatoes Au Gratin
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
More Posts from Anaceinspace-blog and Others
Mauna Kea Starlight
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100th Anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
One hundred years ago this month, Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity (GR), one of the most important scientific achievements in the last century.
A key result of Einstein’s theory is that matter warps space-time, and thus a massive object can cause an observable bending of light from a background object. The first success of the theory was the observation, during a solar eclipse, that light from a distant background star was deflected by the predicted amount as it passed near the sun.
When Einstein developed the general theory of relativity, he was trying to improve our understanding of how the universe works. At the time, Newtonian gravity was more than sufficient for any practical gravity calculations. However, as often happens in physics, general relativity has applications that would not have been foreseen by Einstein or his contemporaries.
How many of us have used a smartphone to get directions? Or to tag our location on social media? Or to find a recommendation for a nearby restaurant? These activities depend on GPS. GPS uses radio signals from a network of satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 20,000 km to pinpoint the location of a GPS receiver. The accuracy of GPS positioning depends on precision in time measurements of billionths of a second. To achieve such timing precision, however, relativity must be taken into account.
Our Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. The experiment, launched in 2004, and measured the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates.
Scientists continue to look for cracks in the theory, testing general relativity predictions using laboratory experiments and astronomical observations. For the past century, Einstein’s theory of gravity has passed every hurdle.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
“sex is great” but have u ever
cracked your back and it feels like sleeping on clouds
heard that one chord in a song that just resonates with your soul
bit into pizza and it doesnt burn your tongue its just warm and yummy
drunk some hot chocolate and the marshmallows have melted perfectly
tucked a lock of hair behind your ear and it stays
breathed in deeply and then exhaled and felt that everything was ok
had someone lean their head on your shoulder absentmindedly
made your friend giggle
realized you had all the ingredients and time for your favorite food
gotten into bed, felt like you’re floating, and fallen asleep immediately
Things You Might Not Know About Our Sun
The sun is a star, a hot ball of glowing gases at the heart of our solar system. Its influence extends far beyond the orbits of distant Neptune and Pluto. Without the sun’s intense energy and heat, there would be no life on Earth. And though it is special to us, there are billions of stars like our sun scattered across the Milky Way galaxy.
Impress Your Friends with These Sun Facts:
If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, the Earth would be the size of a U.S. nickel
The temperature at the sun’s core is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit
Our sun is more massive than the average star in its neighborhood. Nearly 90% of stars are less massive, making them cooler and dimmer
The sun contains 99.9% of all matter in our solar system
During a single second, the sun converts 4 million tons of matter to pure energy
It would take about 1 million Earths to fill the sun if it were a hollow ball
The sun rotates on its axis approximately once every 27 days
The sun is 93 million miles away from Earth and is almost 5 billion years old
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
Hubbles image of the Tarantula Nebula with an estimate 800,000 stars
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