If you think menu planning for your week is tough, imagine the planning that goes into an astronaut’s meals in space. Scientists face unique gastronomical challenges you and I don’t have to consider:
microgravity (i.e. weightless) environments
cabin pressure, humidity, and temperature
food storage, preparation, packaging, and waste disposal
weight of food
cabin safety concerns
Early space meals came in two varieties: pureed mush dispensed from toothpaste-like metal tubes or dried single-bite morsels. Thankfully, astronauts today enjoy a greater variety of flavors and textures. Here are five of the most fascinating and/or bizarre space foods from the last sixty-some years.
1. Liquid Salt and Pepper
Reduced gravity dampens our sense of smell and taste, so condiments like ketchup, mustard, and hot sauce are essential on the International Space Station. However, regular granular salt and pepper would be disastrous. Because of the microgravity environment, salt and pepper particles would not fall on food. Instead, they could float away, clogging air vents, contaminating equipment, or getting lodged into someone’s eyeball! Therefore, salt is dissolved in water, while pepper is suspended in oil.
2. Freeze dried ice cream
It would be negligent of me to not mention this famous museum gift shop favorite. Freeze dried foods were convenient for space flights because they were lightweight, ready-to-eat, and could be sealed in a pouch without refrigeration. Not surprisingly, crumbly dry ice cream was unpopular with astronauts, so it only flew in space once on Apollo 7 (1968).
3. Compressed Bacon Squares
Another space food that never caught on was compressed bacon squares. Bacon was dehydrated and compressed into eight squares, shaped like a chocolate bar. Dehydrated, bite-sized foods were useful because they produced few hazardous crumbs and could be rehydrated by one’s saliva. The bacon squares were flown on the Apollo 11 mission (1969), but were not eaten by the astronauts (I don’t blame them). Now, this relic resides in the National Air and Space Museum.
4. Gelatin-coated snacks and sandwiches
Gemini 3 (1965) crew member, John Young, once snuck a corned beef sandwich on rye onto the space flight. When he ate it in space, crumbs floated all around the cabin. Because of the safety concerns of stray crumbs, a congressional hearing on the contraband sandwich was called, forcing NASA to be more vigilant about what foods could be brought on missions. Scientists developed a gelatinous coating that would encase foods and act as an edible crumb-preventer. (Image: far left is a sleeve of four gelatin-coated snack bites).
5. Irradiated Meat
Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that the meat is radioactive. Ionizing radiation is a method of sterilization, similar to pasteurization, because it kills many harmful microorganisms. Therefore, irradiated meat can be stored at room temperature much longer than regular meat. Nowadays, you can find irradiated beef and smoked turkey on the space menu.
Warning: Take these five somewhat gross examples of space food with a grain of salt, or liquid salt, if you will. Space foods are much more sophisticated and appetizing today. Astronauts can request small amounts of fresh produce or rehydrate hot meals. With a wide selection of over 200 meals, space food today can both comfort and (almost) remind astronauts of a home cooked meal on Earth.
Sources and Further Reading
All images are from NASA, except the image of gelatin coated snack bites, curtsey of the National Air and Space Museum.
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