Heyitsmaye - Vis Com Project Diary

Let’s Talk About Food...in Space!

It’s Thanksgiving time…which means you’re probably thinking about food…

Ever wonder what the astronauts living and working on the International Space Station eat during their time 250 miles above the Earth? There’s no microwave, but they get by using other methods.

Here are some fun facts about astronaut food…

Astronauts are assigned their own set of silverware to use during their mission (they can keep it afterward too). Without a dishwasher in orbit, they use special wipes to sterilize their set between uses, but it’s still better for everyone if they keep track of and use their own! So many sets of silverware were ordered during the space shuttle program that crews on the space station today still use silverware engraved with the word “shuttle” on them! So #retro.

You probably know that astronauts use tortillas instead of bread to avoid crumbs floating everywhere. Rodolfo Neri Vela, a payload specialist from Mexico, who flew on the space shuttle in 1985, introduced tortillas to the space food system. Back then, we would buy fresh tortillas the day before launch to send on the 8-10 day space shuttle missions.

We then learned how to reduce the water activity when formulating tortillas, which coupled with the reduction of oxygen during packaging would prevent the growth of mold and enable them to last for longer shuttle missions. Now, we get tortillas from the military. In August 2017, acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot ate a meal that included tortillas from 2015!

Our food menu is mostly all made from scratch so it can meet the requirements of the nutrition team and ensure astronauts eat enough fruits and vegetables. The space station is stocked with a standard menu that includes a mix of the more than 200 food and drink options available. This ensures lots of variety for the station crews but not too many of each individual item.

The food is packaged into bulk overwrap bags, referred to as BOBs, which are packed into cargo transfer bags for delivery to the space station. Each astronaut also gets to bring nine personalized BOBs for a mission, each containing up to 60 food and drink options so they can include more of their favorites – or choose to send a few specific items for everyone to share on a particular holiday like Thanksgiving. As a result, the crew members often share and swap their food to get more variety. Astronauts also can include any food available at the grocery store as long as it has an 18-month shelf life at room temperature and meets the microbiological requirements.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are a special treat for astronauts, so nearly every cargo resupply mission includes fresh fruit and veggies – and sometimes ice cream!

The Dragon spacecraft has freezers to bring science samples back to Earth. If there is space available on its way to orbit, the ground crew may fill the freezer with small cups of ice cream or ice cream bars.

Some food arrives freeze-dried, and the astronauts rehydrate it by inserting a specific amount of hot or ambient water from a special machine.

Other food comes ready to eat but needs to be reheated, which crew members do on a hot-plate like device. We recently also sent an oven style food warmer to station for the crew to use. And of course, some food like peanuts just get packaged for delivery and are ready to eat as soon as the package is opened!

Our nutritional biochemists have discovered that astronauts who eat more fish in space lost less bone, which is one of the essential problems for astronauts to overcome during extended stays in space. In the limited area aboard the space shuttle, not all crew members loved it when their coworkers ate the (aromatic) fish dishes, but now that the space station is about the size of a six-bedroom house, that’s not really a problem.

Astronauts on station have had the opportunity to grow (and eat!) a modest amount of fresh vegetables since the first lettuce harvest in August 2015, with new crops growing now and more coming soon. Crew members have been experimenting using the Veggie growth chamber, and soon plant research will also occur in the new Advanced Plant Habitat, which is nearly self-sufficient and able to control every aspect of the plant environment! 

Growing food in space will be an important component of future deep space missions, and our nutritionists are working with these experiments to ensure they also are nutritious and safe for the crew to eat.

Thanksgiving in Space

The crew on the space station will enjoy Thanksgiving together. Here’s a look at their holiday menu: 

Turkey

Mashed Potatoes

Cornbread Stuffing

Candied Yams

Cran-Apple Dessert

Learn more about growing food on the space station HERE. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Music I enjoy listening to when studying:

Daughter: winter: new ways, numbers, human, winter, smother, still, lifeforms, no care, youth

Aurora: churchyard, dancing on the moon, daydreamer, the river, apple tree, the seed, mothership, gentle earthquake, queendom

local natives: masters, count, mother emanuel, ellie alice. cafe amerillo, when a i gonna lose you

Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack

attack on titan soundtrack

Fleetwood Mac: landslide, dreams, the chain, storms

Tame Impala: the less i know the better, half full glass of wine

in a world full of chaos

Healing: Introduction and intentions

The area subject ‘Healing’ intrigues me as it is something that every live being must go through, whether it be emotionally, mentally or physically. Healing can be regarded in many ways for example the process of returning back to a healthy state in a relationship or physically healing.

Healing in a medical sense has seen such a rapid progression in the last decade, due to so many pivotal inventions, such as recombinant DNA. This discovery not only helped to massively project the development of medicine that is used today, but also helped to solve crimes that were either left cold years ago due to lack of evidence, or free those who served jail time for a crime they did not commit.

Furthermore, the history of medicine intrigue me as it shows how far healing has come and could also inspire future methods. It is also interesting how the philosophy of a certain region at a particular point in time influenced their medical practices. For instance in the middle ages; a time of limited scientific understanding and when people placed their hopes and faith in the supernatural, came up with gory treatments such as whipping themselves in order to earn God’s forgiveness.

I would like to further research more alternative practices of medicine and compare this with modern medicine. Although it is what is most commonly used, modern medicine may not be the best route to recovery, due to the amount of side effects that are displayed. It could also be argued that most modern treatments are just quick and easy short term cures that force you to keep buying from the same supply. From the knowledge I have gathered of those in my family who have invested in Chinese medicine, although the results are not immediate they are long term due to each dose being altered according to the changes in your daily metabolic state.

I first became intrigued in wanting to further research healing after discovering Dr Emoto’s studies on how emotions influence the molecular structure of crystalized water molecules, proving the existence of human vibrational energy. Although some may believe this to be pseudoscience and that his studies conclude to nothing of importance, I believe that his studies at the least promote the idea of self-healing through manifesting positive energy towards yourself. I also found the dismissiveness of western articles writing about Dr Emoto’s theory interesting, as it reveals how despite not fully understanding the science and dedication behind his studies, they were so quick to label his findings as ‘pseudoscience’ as it did not corelate with the western ideology of science. During FMP I intend to further learn about Dr Emoto’s through reading his books ‘Hidden messages in water’ and ‘The true power of water’ as well as collecting research from other sources in order to come to my own conclusion in regards to the subject.

I also intend to gather information about the therapeutic benefits of music. Throughout the ages music has been a presence in the healing world from Native American throat singing to now being used to provide emotional and behavioural benefits to those with Alzheimer’s disease and types of dementia. This is possible due to the key receptors in the brain which are linked to music, are located to a different area of the brain effected by the disease. It has also been researched that listening to music improves the immune system by promoting the development of the antibody, immunoglobulin A which kills unhealthy or defective cells.

Mental and emotional healing after experiencing grief, a rough relationship, a traumatic experience or addiction is so personal, therefore it is important to research this in a way that respects the individual’s story and their route to recovery. At this point, I am not sure how to approach this subject as I don’t want to generalise an individual’s experience or make them feel invalidated.

I can certainly relate to the medicinal aspect of healing having spent half of my childhood in hospital. However despite me being the one lying on the hospital bed, I honestly didn’t have care in the world because I didn’t fully understand what was happening, whereas my parents and family did and now I know that seeing me like that was probably scarier than for them than it was for me at the time. In every healing, there is always a type of support system that aids in the individual’s recovery, for me it was the nurses and my family, for others it may be different.