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Eating in Space
Roland Piquepaille writes "What do you think astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) ate for Thanksgiving? Roasted turkey? Wrong answer. In "Orbital Thanksgiving," NASA tells us they had tortillas and gives details about food in space. If the dining view, 200 miles over the Earth, is great, preparing meals is quite a challenge. For example, there is no refrigerator or freezer aboard the Station, so food must remain good for long periods at room temperature. And you need to avoid crumbs which could float around. This is why tortillas are favored over bread. This overview contains additional references and includes a picture of a cosmonaut preparing food in the ISS galley."
It's great to know that our space program is finally get properley underway, and that astronauts can now eat well. Next project could be getting TV for them?
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"And you need to avoid crumbs which could float around."
No Homer!
They'll CLOG THE INSTRUMENTS!
Actually I always believed that astronauts sucked pastes of different colors out of plastic sachets, brown-orange was "beef with carrots", and brown-yellow was "turkey breast with potatoes".
If the often-nauseous smells coming from the gally aboard a plane are any indicator, the odour of heating food could be really nasty in space.
And what's this about "no freezer"? What exactly is outer space, if not cold? No airlocks aboard the ISS?
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A what about drinks ? Have the effects of alcohol in space been studied ? I volunteer ! Emm
Too many computers, electronics, etc. on the ISS to have food fights. If you want to have one, you have to go outside.
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
Quoth the article:
Space and zero gravity offer challenges for food preparation.
On the other hand, zero gravity offers unique advantages for food preparation: If you're careful, you never need to run out of counter space.
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I, for one, was amazed at the clarity and crispness of the scenes filmed inside the ISS. I have seen other 3D IMAX movies too: Ghosts of the Abyss,etc...but this one beats them all by a huge factor.
I know for sure it is (or was) running in Atlanta (Mall of GA), DC (Smithsonian Air and Space Museum) and Boston (Aquarium IMAX) last year. Google for it...definetly worth the effort. A few reviews and clips here.
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I guess they didn't want to mention the Enhanced Gaseous Nitrogen Dewar system, which keeps samples frozen at -321 degrees Fahrenheit...
Or perhaps the ARCTIC freezer system, with 38 liters of -20C degree cold stowage...
ISS Fact Sheets
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I wouldn't have thought keeping things cold was that big a challenge in space.
Temperature control is actually quite a problem so the ISS has a number of features to keep temperatures regulated. Overall, space in LEO is cold (averaging 0 F). The problem is that it is far too hot on the sunny side (250 F) and far too cold on the shady side (-250 F). Therefore the ISS is extremely well insulated to maintain an even temperature across the entire inside. But this insulation leads to other problems -- heat builds up from all the equipment. Thus, the ISS has a giant radiator to dump excess heat into space.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I'm surprised that none of the astronauts has snuck a small herb garden on board. Some fresh basil, chives, or parsley would surely enliven the food. You could probably grow these plants in a dirt-free medium by stuffing damp cloth fragments into a sock and keeping it damp. You could then velcro the planter near a window and let it grow.
The plants might grow strangely in zero-G, but I'm sure the leaves would still taste OK.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Space is not cold. Space is not warm. Space is a vacuum.
Space is a great insulator.
What do you think astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) ate for Thanksgiving?
Uh... That question hasn't really kept me sleepless. Considering that you're talking about the International Space Station...
Well, now that the Spanish astronaut has left the station, Americans count for a whopping 50% of the astronauts aboard the station.
I.e. one guy.
Thanksgiving?
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After all, even with months-long space station stays, today's space stations are the equivalent of summer camp compared to what future astronauts will go through. Even if warp drives prove possible -- an enormous if -- astronauts will have to spend years aboard spacecraft to even reach relatively nearby parts of interstellar space.
That being the case, the growing of food in space becomes practically a necessity. As space voyages lengthen, it becomes laughably inefficient to produce on earth the tons of food neccessary for the trip , and blast it into space.
Growing food in space poses all kinds of challenges that make today's pre-packaged problems look trivial. Right from the start, it appears that producing meat, milk, and eggs in space is going to be prohibitively inexpensive. So instead, NASA is funding investigations into growing plants hydroponically--probably extracting minerals from astronaut's crap and urine. Doing this gets around the problem of having to send tons of food into space.
The challenges of having animal agriculture in space are so extreme that it appears that virtually all serious research on space-borne food production is confined to vegan foods. This is purely a practical thing -- it's not as though the scientists at NASA have developed a sudden interest in animal rights. In fact, current studies involving vegan food production in space involve using rats to assess nutritional adequacies of what's being grown.
But vegans can take heart. Even if they don't bring down animal agriculture on earth by 2525, it's a fair bet that Major Tom, blasting towards the Dog Star, will be eating a vegan diet -- whether he likes it or not.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
I'm surprised that none of the astronauts has snuck a small herb garden on board.
You know--
No, no. This is too easy.
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Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
an object in a vacuum will radiate its heat, yes, but that is not why the rubber shattered.
:)
while the vacuum pump was working, it was decreasing the air pressure in the jar. lower the air pressure, lower the temperature of the remaining air. the rubber cooler by the same principle as your air conditioner.
a vacuum is still a great insulator. (that's why my coffee mug here has a vacuum between the inner and outer shells
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That explains this $136,216.20 proposal to NASA to study Development of Extended Shelf-Life for Tortillas for Long-Duration Space Missions".
They wanted to (or did?) use MRI scans of tortilla dough to determine whether there were any changes on a molecular level that could be linked to tortillas taking on a bitter taste after being on the shelf for extended periods of time.
I wish I could get my own NMR spectrometer by saying that I want to study tortillas.
Does anyone else find this to be hilarious?