"space" news and stories

In space, eating can be a tricky endeavor - or rather, food preparation can be because astronauts can't take advantage of the two main things we take for granted in food preparation on earth: gravity and fresh foods. Gravity keeps batters in mixing bowls, eggs in frying pans and sandwiches on the cutting board while you assemble them. It also keeps spilled food together, even if it lands on the floor. This last fact, probably underappreciated by clumsy chefs, is key in space. Food is packaged in tubes and single-serving bags because if it gets away from the astronaut, it could end up going in a million different directions.

Astronauts on the international space station recently had to face such an incident when Sunita Williams spilled a tube of wasabi while "trying to make a pretend sushi meal with bag-packaged salmon." While not toxic, wasabi isn't a completely nonvolatile substance and it took a week to clean it up ("it was flying around everywhere," said Williams) and get rid of the smell.

Needless to say, the wasabi tube - or what is left of it - has been put into storage.

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Space travel is an amazing thing, but it's quite clear that not everything that we have available on Earth can be made available in space. Gravity is one thing that immediately springs to mind, of course, but astronauts have had problems with food, too. Most end up craving coffee, salads and other fresh foods, since their in-flight options can be on the unusual side. To remedy this problem, famous chefs have been recruited to help improve the options for astronauts, working with the foods we know work in space to provide a more varied array of meal options.

Some, however, refuse to give up on the idea that favorites from down here can translate to a zero-gravity environment. Malaysia, for example, is sending its very first astronaut up next year and plans to have him attempt to make the country's national drink, teh tarik, in space. The tea is made by pouring "boiling-hot milky tea swiftly and repeatedly from one vessel held high in one hand into another held low, producing a distinctive layer of froth."

It seems most unlikely that rapid pouring of boiling milk - which relies on gravity to move it in the first place - is going to be successful. And perhaps a country should pick a mission that is less frivolous (and perhaps one more likely to succeed) for their first space flight.

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Astronauts have a limited array of foods that they can produce themselves while in space, due to both space and environmental restrictions. Alain Ducasse has been hard at work creating recipes to satisfy both the palates and the nutritional needs of astronauts, but he's not the only one. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been coming up with their own recipes to sustain men (and women) in space, including cookies. Unfortunately, their cookies involve powdered silkworm pupas. The recipe is "six grams of silkworm pupa powder, 200 grams of rice powder, 50 grams of soy powder and 300 cubic centimeters of soymilk, with soy sauce and salt." The ingredients must be blended with water and "baked" in a 600-watt inductive heating machine. A Chinese researcher said that silkworms might also become standard fare for Chinese astronauts, as they are rich in protein and easy to raise.

Frankly, it seems like Ducasse's foods, which include a rice pudding and a potato and tomato millefeuille, will be more popular.

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Alain Ducasse, one of the most successful restaurateurs in the world and holder of 9 Michelin stars, has begun to prepare meals that will go where no haute cuisine - or even anything worthy of being called a cuisine - has gone before: outer space. The chef is working with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French National Center for Space Studies to create gourmet foods that can be packaged for consumption on space flights, giving astronauts a taste of something better than the garden variety rations then get now.

Currently, astronauts have an extremely limited array of food to choose from when on a flight, the vast majority of it being freeze-dried or vacuum-sealed. They have very limited cooking supplies and no fresh vegetables, leading them to crave foods like salads and hot coffee when they land back on Earth. Ducasse's line, which is called Space Food, will still have to be packaged specially, but will include favorites like rice pudding (in soy milk) and chicken with Thai veggies.

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Three crew members of the international space station are scheduled to return to earth today. They have been in space for six months and what did they miss most? Real food, of course! Not that their families aren't important to them - they are - but the freeze dried and prepackaged space station rations are hardly what you might call gourmet. While it may not be the classic definition of comfort food, Astronaut Bill McArthur wants a salad and a good cup of coffee. He misses the crunch of fresh produce and the flavor of strong coffee. Where do you think he'll go - Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts?

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