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Living and working in a microgravity environment demands culinary ingenuity and creativity. Did you know that bread isn't allowed on the International Space Station (ISS)? This is because it creates unusable debris when floating around the space station. Or that your sense of taste might change in a microgravity environment? A favorite food on Earth might taste terrible in space.
HISTORY OF SPACE FOOD
In the early days of spaceflight, astronauts would consume mashed potatoes from tubes and dry cargo. Astronaut John Glenn was the first to eat in space, demonstrating that swallowing and digestion were possible in a microgravity environment. During the Gemini mission, astronauts began consuming freeze-dried foods and powdered drinks, rehydrating themselves with cold water before consumption.
The Apollo program continued to use freeze-dried food and powdered beverages, but added hot water if desired. These meals, similar to the “Ready-to-Eat Meals” (MREs) used by the U.S. armed forces, are still used today, but with improved flavor, texture, and selection.
The bizarre way humans eat and drink in space.
The space race is accelerating. Within the next two years, NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon. The International Space Station (ISS), designed to operate in orbit for 15 years but now in its 26th year, will soon be replaced.
“Food is what keeps astronauts alert. Delicious, varied food tailored to the needs of each astronaut is essential for a successful space mission. I think people are underestimating its importance,” said Dr. Sonja Brungs, Deputy Astronaut Operations Coordinator at the European Space Agency (ESA).
FOOD PREPARATION PROCESS
Food for NASA's current astronauts is prepared and packaged at the Space Food Systems Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There, astronauts choose the meals they want for their mission.
The "mysterious" foods of astronauts in outer space.
The laboratory produces nutritious food, ensuring optimal health and performance for the crew, and is also a crucial agency for researching and developing meals for long-duration missions of up to five years. Long-duration space flights require space food with a long shelf life, meaning it can be safely consumed for months or years at "ambient temperature" or room temperature.
The foods are processed in frozen and dried form, in pellet form.
Other common processes aimed at ensuring the longevity of space food include thermal stabilization, which exposes the food or packaging to high temperatures and pressures, and irradiation, which exposes the food and packaging to ionizing radiation. Both processes eliminate bacteria that can spoil food, affecting its shelf life and rendering it inedible. Astronauts can also eat normal food in its natural form, such as nuts, granola bars, candy, and cookies, which are repackaged at the Space Food Systems Laboratory.
Most people don't imagine that gravity affects our sense of taste. It turns out it does, but indirectly. When floating in a microgravity environment, the tissues in our bodies become more evenly distributed instead of being pulled down towards the legs and feet. This causes astronauts to experience puffier or rounder faces.
As space science continues to advance, astronauts' diets are no longer limited to simply ensuring adequate nutrition.
Besides facial swelling, the lack of gravity also leads to congestion, even in perfectly healthy astronauts. If you've ever eaten while catching a cold or having to cover your nose when eating something you don't like, you know that the sense of smell is essential for tasting. This congestion makes it difficult to smell and causes food to taste different or quite bland. Because of this, astronauts often prefer foods with strong flavors, especially sweet, salty, bitter, and particularly spicy.
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
In 2021, NASA launched the Space Food Challenge to explore new ways to create food with limited resources, minimize waste, and provide safe, nutritious, and delicious food for long-term space missions.
Solar Foods, based in Helsinki, Finland, is one of eight companies that made it to the final stage of the competition. Their remarkable idea is to use space waste to produce protein.
Solar Foods' protein can be transformed into a paste or fine powder, then mixed with flour and other common food ingredients to create high-protein foods such as pasta, protein bars, and even chocolate. Experiments are ongoing to explore whether it can be mixed with oil and transformed into a steak-textured food using 3D printing.
Fresh produce is also a consideration: while vitamin supplements can help, astronauts need fresh produce. Experiments continue to explore how to grow vegetables in this unique zero-gravity, sunless environment. The ISS has its own small vegetable garden on board, where astronauts study plant growth in microgravity.
