As the Mercury Program flights became longer, they tried eating more types of foods. In particular, in addition to the pureed foods, they tried dehydrated powders. This was the period that gave us Tang, which was actually developed back in In the first Gemini mission, Gemini 3, John Young snuck a corned beef sandwich on the flight because it was the favorite sandwich of the commander Gus Grissom.
This was totally in violation of the mission protocols and it was done in secret. This was a bigger deal than it might seem and illustrates one of the reasons why the astronauts were given the equivalent of baby food to eat. Bread has crumbs. Crumbs in space can float all over the cabin, get inside of sensitive electronics, and potentially cause a short circuit.
They ended up not eating the sandwich and got chewed out when they got back. One of the biggest developments during the Gemini program was the creation of freeze-dried foods. Freeze drying actually is a great way to preserve food even if the process is a bit involved. As the name suggests freeze-drying involved bringing the food below freezing, then exposing it to a vacuum. The water in the food sublimates, meaning it goes directly from a solid to a gas. They introduced the spoon-bowl system where astronauts could eat out of a ziplock bag with a spoon.
They also created a way for food to be rehydrated with both hot and cold water. Previously, everything was done only with cold water. The longest mission was only 12 days, which is short enough to just suffer through with standard astronaut fair. The Skylab program involved much longer stays in space, up to three months. This would be far longer than any previous space missions and issues of nutrition and taste became more important. For extremely long-term missions, the psychological well-being would be improved by a greater variety of foods.
One thing that they did on Skylab was introduced a refrigerator and a freezer. For the first time that allowed for perishable food in space. Previously, everything had to be shelf-stable. Continue reading to learn more about dining on the ISS. In the early days of space flight, Mercury astronauts would consume puree squeezed from tubes and cubes of dry goods.
Astronaut John Glenn was the first to eat in space, proving that swallowing and digestion are possible in microgravity.
During the Gemini missions, astronauts began consuming freeze-dried food and powdered beverages, which they rehydrated with cold water prior to consumption.
The Apollo Program continued to use freeze-dried food and powdered beverages, but with the luxury of hot water if desired. There, astronauts select the meals they would like for their mission. The lab creates food that is nutritious, ensuring peak health and performance for the crew, and is an important entity for the research and development of meals for long-duration missions of up to five years.
The first step of the freeze drying process involves freezing fully prepared food at approximately minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, the food is put into a vacuum chamber and heated so the water content of the food sublimates, or transforms directly from a solid ice to a gas water vapor.
This process kills some but not all bacteria, however it does stop bacteria from multiplying and spoiling the food. Additional benefits of freeze-drying are that it drastically reduces the weight of the food item, which means a lighter payload for launch, and it preserves the most nutrients and is easier to rehydrate when compared to other preservation methods. Other common processes that ensure the longevity of space food are thermostabilization, which exposes cans or pouches to high heat and pressure, and irradiation, which exposes food and packaging to ionizing radiation.
Both processes eliminate bacteria that could spoil the food, compromise its shelf-life and make it inconsumable. Astronauts may also eat normal pantry goods in their natural form such as nuts, granola bars, candies, cookies and more, repackaged at the Space Food Systems Laboratory.
Space food commonly comes in plastic packaging or cans. To prevent their food from floating away at meal time, packaging has Velcro patches so it can be attached to a tray or table. Tape, tethers, and magnets are also used to affix food items to surfaces. Scissors are an essential utensil for opening the vacuum sealed bags and retort pouches in which space food is packaged. Liquid generally stays attached to its package and the utensil used to eat it because of surface tension.
However, when drinking rehydrated beverages from a pouch, specially adapted straws are important. The straws have a clasp to prevent liquid from floating out of the straw. This is different than eating soup out of a package, as once the water travels up the straw, it has very little surface to cling to and can float away. Alcohol NASA astronauts are not permitted to have any alcohol is space. Astronaut ice cream What? Fish The best space foods are those that can be stored for a long period of time without going bad.
Comments comments. Author Meghan Rodgers Meghan is a full-time writer exploring the fun facts behind food. Easy ways to help restaurants survive the Coronavirus pandemic March 19, Strawberry basil chia smoothie March 19,
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