Food In Space
- Anagh Nag Puranik
- 12 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Astronauts in space have to eat. For most of space history, we have prepared food in a specific way that can be safely brought to space and eaten there. It has to provide a balanced diet and sufficient nutrition, and be safe and easy to store, transport, and consume in a no-gravity environment. Because of these requirements, space food is usually freeze-dried to lower weight and increase shelf life, but there are also non-freeze-dried foods.
There are multiple types of space food brought into space; while astronauts mainly eat rehydratable foods, there are plenty of other types consumed. First, beverages like coffee or lemonade are provided in vacuum-sealed beverage pouches. Next, fresh foods are stuff like fruits, vegetables, and other foods that spoil quickly and need to be eaten soon. They are provided as psychological support for astronauts. Next, there is irradiated meat. It is meat that is sterilized using ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is used to destroy organisms that could spoil the meat. Then, there are intermediate moisture foods that have some moisture, but don’t spoil that quickly, like beef jerky. Another type is natural form, which includes shelf-stable foods like nuts. The main one astronauts use is rehydratable foods. These foods have been dehydrated so they can last longer. There are other types too, and some foods aren’t part of a type.
There are many requirements for designing food in space. It must be nutritious, digestible, and palatable. It must be viable in a zero-gravity environment, so it is also light, easy to serve and clean up, and stores well. If a food satisfies these criteria, it could be eaten in space. Since some of the food is freeze-dried, there are hydrators (hydrators hydrate the food, by the way). There are also food warmers, which warm up the food.
Space food has come a long way. Early space food was made of bite-size cubes, freeze-dried powders, and liquids in aluminum tubes. The tubes were eventually discontinued because they didn’t allow the food to be smelled or seen. Powders and cubes changed over time, becoming better to use on space stations. On the Apollo 8 mission, the spoon bowl was introduced. Astronauts can open the package and eat it with a spoon. In 1961, space nutrition became a bigger priority after Gherman Titov vomited in space. Space food evolved, and today NASA wants food on the ISS to be similar to Earth food, so meals on the ISS are much nicer now.
The ISS is also studying how to grow plants and even edible vegetables in space. Learning how to grow edible vegetables in space would be great because it can lower the amount of food stockpiling, making longer missions, especially planet missions, easier. It will also improve an astronaut’s diet. The goal of space farming is to make the spaceship into an artificial ecosystem. If we ever have off-Earth colonies, space farming will be very important.
All in all, food has come a long way. There are many types of food that astronauts eat, each satisfying strict amount of requirements to be there. Space farming is also a very interesting prospect. I am very excited for how we will feed astronauts in the future.
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