DailyDirt: Space Food

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Jul 20th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Most people's idea of astronaut food is freeze-dried ice cream -- which astronauts don't actually eat anymore. But with all the commercial space ventures that are trying to create a space tourism industry, maybe there should be more culinary options for zero gravity meals. Here are just a few examples of space food that might be better than a packet of salted peanuts.

Making bread in space isn't too easy, especially if you want it to have the same consistency as normal Earth-bound bread. A teenager has proposed a bread recipe for astronauts that involves low pressure aeration of flour dough and low temperature cooking. [url]
NASA created specially-prepared food for Apollo astronauts in the 1960s. An example meal is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, and it looks just as unappetizing as it did several decades ago. [url]
University of Colorado Boulder students are working on a robotic farming system for growing food for astronauts in space. This project is meant to support long-term missions such as a journey to Mars, and the automated system will attempt to seed plants, monitor plant growth, harvest and process crop residues. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: apollo, astronaut, bread, food, freeze-dried meals, mars, robotic farming, space

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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2012 @ 6:05pm

1969.. what did they eat on the moon?
Did the moon landing astronauts eat anything while they were on the moon? Just curious.......
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2012 @ 7:18pm
  
  Re: 1969.. what did they eat on the moon?
  Just cheese, which is what the moon is made of.
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- Wally (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 9:26pm
  
  Re: 1969.. what did they eat on the moon?
  I think this may help answer your question.
  
  http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/07/food-of-the-apollo-11-lunar-landing/
  
  It's sort of a paste that you sucked through a straw. They contained all the same nutritional value.
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Atkray (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 7:29pm

What about space sticks ---> http://spacefoodsticks.com/pdf/skylab.pdf

and Tang?
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- Wally (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 9:31pm
  
  Re:
  Tang: Also known As "Orange Drink"
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Rekrul, 20 Jul 2012 @ 7:48pm

The first link is broken...
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- Michael Ho (profile), 21 Jul 2012 @ 12:18am
  
  Re:
  Rekrul,
  
  Hmm. The Google cache of that link still works for now:
  http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1DTXr0_YdKwJ:open.nasa.gov/blog/2012/05/2 1/space-bread/+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
  
  But it looks like there's a problem with nasa.gov's blog...
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Wally (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 9:20pm

COSCI
Oh astronaught food :-) Closest thing people can get to that is Whoppers. When I was about 7 years old, my mom took a group my friends and I to COSCI (Central Ohio Science and Industry). It's an interactive science Meuseum. As a party favors my mom got us all Ice Cream Sandwiches. They were in dehydrated form as they would be packed on the space shuttle. Oh the memories :-)
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Wally (profile), 21 Jul 2012 @ 12:29am

More Extensive History of Space Food
Therr are some pretty interesting stories involving aastronaughts and their food in the Mercury and Gemini era's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_food

Tang:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_(dri nk)
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 21 Jul 2012 @ 6:10pm

�... IN SPACE!!!�
Fun game: take ordinary humdrum statements and make them more exciting by appending �... IN SPACE!!!�. E.g.

I�ll have a paua fritter and chips to go ... IN SPACE!!!

He still puts his pants on one leg at a time ... IN SPACE!!!

I�ve got this nasty rash on my bum ... IN SPACE!!!
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