NASA Sells Space Food, Shuttle Tiles To Schools

iamrmani writes with word that NASA "is offering processed space shuttle tiles and astronaut food to eligible schools and universities to preserve history. The lightweight space shuttle tiles protected the shuttles from extreme temperatures when the orbiters re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, while space food was precooked such that refrigeration is not required and is ready to eat or could be prepared simply by adding water or by heating." I wish NASA would finance future missions by selling interestingly packaged astronaut foods in general -- other than the ice cream, I've seen it only in museum displays.

Comments

Probably costs a lot

[Anrego]

I wish NASA would finance future missions by selling interestingly packaged astronaut foods in general

I suspect it probably costs more to produce than one could sell it for... and probably tastes like crap. Interested parties would buy it once for the novelty, then that would probably be it.

Re:Probably costs a lot

[the_raptor]

I suspect you are wrong. What the issue would be is that NASA doesn't produce this stuff, it pays contractors to develop it. And those contractors have the rights to the processes involved and it isn't like preserved food is cool and futuristic any more. It has been a long time since preserved food was such a novelty that people would pay a decent mark up for it (in the 19th century rich people used to serve horrid tinned meats because they were a novelty).

Re:Probably costs a lot

[swb]

Aren't MREs that the military uses basically the same thing, minus whatever is done to suit the specific environment of low-Earth orbit?

IIRC, MREs have a shelf life of about 10 years, require no refrigeration or reheating, although I think some come with heat tablets/packs that can warm the meals to make them more palatable.

The there's the whole world of hiker/mountaineering food, which is probably somewhere between MREs and the kind of packaged stovetop meals you can buy at the grocery store.

Besides whatever is taken into consideration for low gravity, about the only thing space food might do differently would be nutritional content. MREs I think are very high calorie and oriented towards young people doing strenuous work (soldiers in the field). Space food is probably more oriented towards lower calorie needs of astronauts who have less physical exertion and are generally older.

Re:Probably costs a lot

[milkmage]

actually - it's sounds pretty tasty. it's not like they take boxes of MREs.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/F_Food_for_Space_Flight.html

not all of it is dehydrated... they have (irridiated) steaks

scroll down for the base menu
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/factsheets/food.html

a week on the shuttle is manageable.. it's like camping.
a months long stint on the ISS is a different story... for a mission of that duration, food becomes a significant factor in crew morale. same reason submarine food is also said to be very good.

Re:Probably costs a lot

[stewbee]

As an ex submariner, I will add my $0.02. I would agree that the food on the sub wasn't too bad. It was certainly better than some of the other mess halls that I had eaten in, and I would attribute it to a few factors. The first one being was that I was probably never out to sea for more than three weeks between port visits. When we would visit a port we would always bring on fresh produce, milk, and meats. Also, the cooks only have to cook for about 120 men. This would mean that they could almost take their time and not rush to get the food out. And usually, the captain knew everyone on the ship, including the cooks, by name. If the captain likes your cooking, it looks good for you and your performance reviews. You mix all of these things together (pun intended), and I would say that you have all of the makings of usually* pretty good food.

*I say usually, because when we are in port, and if the cook got sh!tfaced the night before, he probably isn't going to have is A game that day when cooking. But hey, we were sailors after all.

Could be a great learning tool

[netwarerip]

In the hands of the right teacher this is the kind of thing that could get kids interested in science, provided the teacher gets a chance to talk about them during the 3 minutes per class time that isn't used to teach them how to pass whatever standardized test is next on the schedule.

Re:Could be a great learning tool

[jacksonyee]

When I was growing up, it was ST: TNG which got me interested in science along with Mr. Wizard and a whole lot of good teachers along the way who introduced me to model rocketry, optics, and home chemistry sets. We've advanced so much since then in terms of homebrew projects and access to information via the Internet, but have also lost a lot in terms of freedoms and regulations since 9/11. So many things that we used to do because we were kids and sorely for fun are now outlawed or frowned upon in this time and age. It's hard to say whether this generation will have an easier time growing up than we did.

The thing that I've found after switching careers from a programmer in the U.S. to an English teacher in China is that kids are amazing resilient and playful wherever they are. All you have to do is to give them the right tools, a little push along the way, and it's incredible what they can accomplish. Now, the U.S. educational system is still an order of magnitude better than the Chinese one in many ways, but the rest of the world is catching up slowly, and it's quite possible that the playing field will be leveled in our lifetimes. I sorely wish that my current students will have a chance to get outside of the standardized testing mindset and be able to develop their own thoughts and ideas for themselves, but it's an uphill climb against society in both countries for different reasons. All we can do as teachers is to try.

reminds me of 1993

[Lead Butthead]

Engineers on street corners with cups and signs that say "Please Give"?

... when I graduated. Aerospace department graduates had signs up that said "will build space shuttles for food."

A dupe from 1984?

[vlm]

... NASA is ... offering processed space shuttle tiles ... to eligible schools

Is this a dupe from 1983? If I recall from decades ago, according to the asset tag at my middle school, that's when we got our shuttle tile. 83-something. Back then they did not have bar code or RFID tags, at least where I was.

Now the actual story might be that instead of fishing them out of the scrap and bump -n- dent barrel and giving them to schools, they're dumping out the surplus brand new theoretically usable spare parts instead.

Are there any schools without tiles? I think every school in our district had at least one shuttle tile since the 80s. You can do some pretty cool demos of insulation, picking them up by the corners while red hot, etc. Aerogels work even better but they're much more fragile.

Re:Food Prices

[kannibal_klown]

NASA is famous for paying $10,000 for a toilet seat. Can you imagine how much they pay for the food? Sure, it would be cool if they had it for sale - but I don't think they'll sell many meals if they are $1,000 each.

You're right, they should just go the Lowe's and pick up a toilet + seat that's on sale. No big deal, I'm sure it would all work fine in a low / zero Gravity environment.

When you're working up there, certain things on the earth (that we take for granted) are a lot more complicated. When you have to custom build things to work up there, it's going to be obscenely expensive compared to mass-produced stuff for down here.

And before you mention the $1million pen, that's just a myth. It was done privately by Fisher, who sold it to NASA.

Paying for shuttle tiles ?

[Zoxed]

Maybe I am getting old, but I can remember when they just fell out of the sky, for free :-)

Labels

[DinDaddy]

Knowing the dehydrated food I have tried, I hope they clearly label the two. Don't want the kids gnawing on the tiles.