Have you ever imagined that you can eat sushi and pizzas in space? Different cuisines we usually eat, like Chinese, Japanese or American food, appear on the astronaut's menu!
When you cannot go back home for a few months (missions on the International Space Station (ISS) last for about 6 months each time), you must miss the food in your country! There is a variety of space food on the ISS. Menus are selected according to the palates and habits of different countries so that astronauts of different nationalities can enjoy food from their hometowns. NASA's space food includes nuts, peanut butter, chicken, beef, seafood and brownies. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) provides Japanese ramen, sushi, miso soup and curry to astronauts. Russian astronauts have borscht, fish and goulash. Chinese astronauts have Chinese cuisines like Gongbao chicken, Yuxiang pork and Eight Treasure rice.
Not all food can be eaten in space. Bread is one of them as it has crumbs. These crumbs can damage the devices in the ISS or cause them to malfunction when the bits are flying around in the ISS or choking the astronauts. For the astronaut ice cream, you may have seen or even tried it, but it has never been flown to space because they have crumbs. Astronaut ice cream is different from the ice cream we usually eat. After freeze-drying, it is crumbly so the bits fall apart when you bite into it. The myth of astronaut ice cream might come from the press release of Apollo 7 mission. At that time, a company was under the contract to develop ice cream that can be stored at room temperature. They froze the ice cream and then used a vacuum pump to evaporate the ice under pressure. Air is retained inside the ice cream so that it is crunchy and can melt in the mouth instantly. Although the ice cream does not melt at room temperature, this astronaut ice cream has never been to space according to records. The space ice cream is not a real space food! With a freezer accompanying a space mission was launched in 2006, astronauts could eat real ice cream in space!
If you have a chance to go to space, what kind of food will you bring there? Being varied and diverse, do you know how space foods are made? Keep an eye out for our next post about space food!
