0:08

Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm an Eeries

0:10

and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this

0:12

is our episode of food Stuff in

0:15

Space that's

0:19

really high tech. Uh, sound

0:22

effects only the best. So

0:25

there's a lot to talk about here. Yeah,

0:28

get right into it. What is space food?

0:30

It's food for space travel. Yeah. And

0:32

as we all learned in the Simpsons episode

0:34

Deep Space Homer, in which Homer Simpson

0:36

lets potato chips and then ants loose in

0:39

a spacecraft, you've got to take

0:41

some special considerations before

0:43

you take food into space because

0:45

the equipment up there is you know, kind of delicate, and

0:48

any kind of loose particles or drops of liquid

0:50

could just seriously muck things up in

0:52

the near zero gravity of

0:55

orbit. And yes, I said near zero

0:57

gravity, it's not really zero gravity. There's always

1:00

gravity kind of kicking around. So a

1:02

technical point, but an important one because of

1:04

science. Yes, So

1:07

you've got to give astronauts food that's well

1:09

contained, you know, like tortillas

1:11

instead of bread to reduce crumbs. Things

1:13

that are sticky or well enough to not float

1:15

out of their containers or off of a

1:17

utensil. Uh, stuff like like scrambled

1:19

eggs or stews. Or oatmeal seasoned

1:22

with salt that's dissolved in water, and pepper

1:24

that's suspended in oil. Oh

1:26

yeah, Um. It's also got

1:28

to be shelf stable because refrigeration systems

1:31

for food are generally considered too bulky

1:34

or difficult or energy consuming. It

1:36

helps if the food is dehydrated and

1:38

therefore lightweight, because the cost per

1:40

pound of sending stuff into space

1:43

is uh well hefty, yeah,

1:46

part intended, h uh.

1:48

And modernly most water in

1:50

space comes from reclaimed, recycled sources

1:53

instead of from supply runs. Also,

1:56

you have to make really, like really

1:58

sure that none of the packaging, utensils

2:00

or heating elements involved with your food

2:03

might create a spark that could start a fire.

2:05

Uh, and they want puncture any equipment.

2:08

Don't want any of that. And furthermore,

2:10

the food has to be, you know, like not so

2:12

boring or so gross that the highly

2:14

trained scientists and flight specialists

2:16

wind up starving themselves. Yeah,

2:19

you don't want that either. For travel

2:21

to the International Space Station, five

2:23

months before emission, crew members do a

2:25

taste test of twenty to thirty things, ranking

2:28

taste, texture, smell, appearance in color

2:30

on a scale of one to nine, and

2:32

to make the cut of food needs to score a six

2:35

or higher. They can request some of their favorite

2:37

foods from home, and researchers will do

2:39

what they can to comply. For example,

2:41

for Canadian Chris had Fields stay

2:43

uh, they added to the menu duck roulette

2:47

and candied smoked salmon, wild

2:49

caught even and maple syrup

2:51

cream cookies. Well, that sounds delicious.

2:54

Dietitians have to balance the need of space

2:56

as well. For instance, astronauts need

2:59

calcium and vitamin for good bone health

3:01

in a witless almost weightless

3:03

environment, but um and the

3:05

less iron because you're making less red blood

3:07

cells in space. Space

3:10

travel and the need to feed astronauts

3:12

in space has fueled a lot of food and food

3:14

processing innovations like thermostabilized

3:17

or heat processed foods that can come

3:19

in cans or pouches, rehydratable

3:22

foods like soups or castroles, and your

3:24

radiated meat. The the irradiated

3:27

means that it won't spoil, not that it's like Godzilla.

3:29

Yeah, that's what I thought at first, that

3:32

would not be good. It

3:34

generally takes about twenty to thirty minutes

3:36

to prepare a to like reconstitute

3:39

and heat a space meal. Um,

3:41

and a lot of these innovations,

3:44

like freeze dried food went on to become

3:46

available to your you know, every

3:48

day non astronaut consumer

3:51

like Lauren and I. We could, we

3:53

could probably do a whole other episode on like the technological

3:56

innovations from the space program that have benefited

3:59

the food industry Earth side.

4:01

Yeah, but that day

4:03

is not today. Nope, today is space

4:06

side. I don't know if that makes sense, but we're

4:08

moving on with it. Current astronauts

4:11

on the International Space Station eat three meals and

4:13

one snack per day. The

4:15

Johnson Space Centers Space Food Systems

4:17

Laboratory comes up with these menus for American

4:20

astronauts, while the Russian Federal Space Agency

4:22

does the same for its cosmonauts. Most

4:25

of these meals are the just add water variety, similar

4:27

to the military's m R. E's. Some

4:30

package foods a lot of us are more

4:32

familiar with make their way

4:34

up to space as well, like almonds or

4:36

drinks the straws a lot cuprey Son,

4:38

which is what I thought of anyway. UM,

4:41

food packages come with velcro, so astronauts

4:43

can stick to the velicos steps on

4:46

the galley table and it won't float away. That'd

4:48

be sad.

4:51

I would be so cross with my snack if it floated

4:53

away. Astronauts

4:57

and costronauts and etcetera also do

4:59

sometimes receive fresh fruit and vegetables

5:01

from supply missions and care packages

5:04

from family. Um, and these are serious

5:06

treats. It's hard to to nail

5:09

down a finite cost of sending stuff to space

5:11

because there's so many factors that go into it. But

5:13

you can divide the cost of each launch by

5:15

the weight of the cargo each craft can carry

5:18

to get a kind of rough idea. Uh so,

5:20

so you know that the cost will differ depend on

5:22

the type of craft being used. But the

5:24

low end of the range is

5:27

nine thousand dollars per pound

5:30

of food. Well that's the low end, huh

5:33

yeah yeah, and and a pound equals about half a kilo

5:35

UM for for our metric friends. Um

5:37

that the high end, the high end is over forty

5:39

three dollars per pound, no

5:42

boy, which means that sending a single

5:44

fresh lemon to space can cost

5:47

about ten grand. I would enjoy

5:49

that lemon so much though, Ye right,

5:53

Uh cocktails in space, So actually we've got

5:55

a segment on that later. Um. The

5:58

total food eaten by astronauts.

6:00

Yes, on average, each gets about

6:02

three point eight pounds including

6:05

the packaging. They probably don't needt the packaging per day

6:07

um, which equals out to about uh somewhere

6:09

between nineteen hundred and thirty two hundred

6:12

calories depending on the person's specific

6:14

needs and the

6:16

food items that have been sent to space.

6:18

The most are M and M's, with

6:21

over one thirty chips since ninety

6:23

one, but they call them chocolate coated

6:25

candies. I think something like

6:27

that, followed by a high tech food trade

6:30

that could heat itself and came with a

6:32

collapsible bottle called the sky Lab

6:34

Food System, And coming in third

6:37

is the iconic astronaut powdered

6:39

drink mix tang Yes,

6:43

courtesy of the dry cabin

6:45

decreased sense of smell unless there atmosphere

6:48

space. Human ability to taste is lowered

6:50

by thirty percent in space, which

6:52

is why foods loaded up with spices have been

6:54

and are some of the most popular.

6:57

Apparently shrimp cocktail is just white no

7:00

kept coming up. Yeah.

7:02

Uh. Part of what's going on here, not with

7:04

a shrimp cocktail, but with your your face is

7:06

that in near zero gravity that the blood

7:08

that your heart is trained to work really

7:10

hard at pulling up from your legs, tends

7:12

to kind of accumulate in your head more

7:15

than it usually would, which means your

7:17

sciences get kind of swollen and your nose

7:19

stuffs up. Another part is that

7:21

sense don't waft the same

7:23

way in near zero gravity. Also,

7:26

freeze drying foods can destroy some of the compounds

7:28

that create sent in flavor. So you've got that

7:30

to contend with. Yeah, and

7:33

of course you've got to have water. As

7:36

of the I S SH International

7:38

Space Station, if we haven't said that previously,

7:40

I'm not sure, anyway, carried about two thousand

7:43

liters a little bit over five gallons of water,

7:45

but also reclaimed and recycled as much

7:47

as of the water

7:50

used by its astronauts. Uh. The station

7:52

collects the condensation from breath and

7:54

sweat and the runoff from showers, and

7:56

on the American side of the station they even collect

7:59

urine for astronauts and lab animals.

8:02

Um That all gets filtered so that it winds

8:04

up being cleaner than most of what we drink

8:06

here on Earth. One thing that the Russians

8:08

and Americans have classically disagreed on

8:10

is how best to filter all

8:13

of that recycled water, and they flat out refuse

8:15

the yearine thing. They're like, Nope, that's gross, you're

8:17

terrible. Um. But

8:19

but but the filtering gets done. And of course

8:21

water isn't the only thing available to drink on the space

8:24

station. Stuff like coffee, tea, and juice

8:26

usually come in powdered form and then are reconstituted

8:29

the ever important coffee. Oh yeah,

8:32

there's a whole bit about that later too. Uh.

8:34

And we're going to get to that kind

8:36

of soon. But first, let's get to a quick

8:38

break for a word from our sponsor, and

8:50

we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank

8:52

you. So let's talk a bit about the origins

8:55

of space food. Space

8:57

food goes back about as far as

8:59

the US and Russian space programs

9:01

of the nineteen sixties. Oh, we're not going to talk about

9:03

ancient Romans. Pliny didn't have anything to say about

9:06

it. I know plenty. Come on, we're

9:08

not going to mention Christopher Columbus this whole

9:10

episode, except I just did. Oh oh yeah,

9:13

well, okay, obviously, if

9:15

you're going to send people to space for more

9:17

than a few hours, you're gonna have to feed

9:19

them somehow. In addressing

9:21

this, NASA developed a program

9:24

called the Hazard Analysis Critical Control

9:26

Point or h A c c

9:28

P, and the purpose of a j A c c

9:31

P was to prevent food safety issues

9:33

by employing a seven steps science space

9:35

system when preparing food, and this system

9:38

is now a requirement in the US for all meat,

9:40

seafood, poultry, and juice processors.

9:43

By the way, the first meal

9:45

ever eaten in space was by the Soviet

9:47

cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in

9:49

April of nineteen sixty one, and

9:51

it consisted of a tube of

9:54

beef and liver paste and then a

9:56

tube of chocolate sauce for dessert. You've

9:58

got to have dessert, you did even in space.

10:01

Um the Friendship seven. In nineteen sixty

10:04

two, John Glenn became the first American

10:06

to eat in space, and the

10:08

historic first food he consumed was

10:11

apple sauce. Yeah,

10:14

and period, beef and vegetables, both squeezed

10:16

appetizingly out of aluminum tubes,

10:18

sort of like a little toothpaste tube sharing sucked

10:21

up to a straw that fit into a porthole

10:23

in Glenn's helmet. A nineteen

10:25

sixty two New York Times article documented

10:28

what seems like every detail

10:30

extensively, including

10:32

the exact time he started

10:35

in on his first tube, and the

10:37

food was described thusly. His

10:39

two course meal consisted of a beef

10:41

vegetable mixture and apple sauce. His

10:44

squeeze food was semi solid, which

10:46

means it was pretty much like baby food, but

10:48

with adult seasoning okay,

10:51

and sugar added. And

10:53

with the flexible tube and nozzle, Colonel

10:56

Glenn did not run into the exasperation

10:58

of catchup bottleneck. For

11:01

who among us has not struggled but a

11:03

bottleneck. The aluminum

11:06

tube was developed by the American Canned

11:08

Company Container scientist. These

11:11

twobes have been developed by the company in the nineteen

11:13

forties for World War Two fighter pilots.

11:16

All this stuff was and would continue to be,

11:18

based on military survival rations.

11:21

It was kind of crazy frontier science.

11:23

Though. One of Glenn's missions

11:26

while he was up there was to see whether he

11:28

could sip water. What if he couldn't?

11:30

Have? He could, but what

11:32

if he got it? It would have been a sad

11:34

day for space travel, good man, I'm

11:36

telling you um. He His

11:39

flight also marked the first leftovers

11:41

in space, a tube of spaghetti

11:43

that he chose not to eat. I

11:45

wonder why I don't know. A

11:48

year earlier, in nineteen sixty one, Whirlpool

11:51

Whirlpool Corporation, yes

11:54

that world Pool, showed off their space

11:56

kitchen at a convention. This

11:59

thing was a compact ten by seven

12:01

point five foot cylinder or

12:03

three by two meters, and it had a refrigerator, freezer

12:06

disposal, and water system made

12:08

to last the food and drink needs for fourteen

12:11

day mission. They fulfilled

12:13

over three hundred contracts with their space

12:15

kitchen from nineteen fifty seven to nineteen

12:19

Okay, yeah. In

12:22

nineteen sixty three, a scientist named Sydney

12:24

A. Schwartz came up with

12:26

an idea of making space capsules

12:29

either entirely or partly out of

12:31

edible materials. Okay,

12:34

Willy Wonka scene, All right, yep,

12:36

it was a spacecraft made out of food.

12:39

A Newsweek article out of that year purports

12:41

that he came up with a recipe of five

12:44

dollars worth of groceries like cornstarch,

12:46

flour, banana flakes, harmony

12:48

powdered milk that could be baked

12:51

up in a four hundred degree

12:53

hydraulic press with three thousand

12:56

pounds of pressure, and the result

12:58

was a slab that didn't splinter when drilled

13:01

into or slid and for space

13:03

travel. Shorts suggested it

13:05

as a cheap material for things like cabinets,

13:08

and yes, you could eat it. You um, you

13:10

just added water after you've ground up

13:13

the slab and the bowder. Shorts

13:15

claimed it tasted like banana topped

13:18

cereal. Interesting

13:20

idea. I like the

13:22

creativity. Sure, that's

13:26

great. Yeah, Well,

13:29

moving on from edible spacecraft,

13:32

that's the ultimate space food. For

13:34

the mid sixties Jim and I Apollo

13:37

and Mercury missions, astronauts were given dehydrated

13:39

and freeze dried cubes along

13:42

with the tubes. These bite sized

13:44

cubes were meant to provide an eating experience closer

13:46

to Earth's and they came coated in inedible

13:49

film that kept crumbs, those

13:51

troublesome crumbs from floating

13:53

about and mucking things up. And they

13:55

came with nozzles at the edge of the pouch and instructions

13:57

on how much water you needed to re high

14:00

drate m H. In

14:03

nineteen sixty four Los Angeles Times articles

14:05

detailed some of the complications and

14:07

necessities for designing food

14:09

for space. No carbonation

14:12

because at low pressure and high altitudes, gas

14:15

expands in your belly. The whole

14:17

crumb issue getting the right balance

14:19

of nutrients. The general girl at the time

14:21

was se protein, carbo

14:24

hydrates, and fat, and

14:28

of the moisture was removed to reduce weight

14:30

and prevent spoiliage. There

14:33

was also transport and space

14:35

constraints along with the balancing of

14:37

the psychological need to eat. As the

14:39

article described it, that's

14:41

one of the reasons the idea of food and pill

14:43

form was rejected, and

14:46

the food didn't taste great.

14:51

The first astronaut to try the freeze

14:53

dried stuff, Gordon Cooper, only eight

14:56

of his two thousand, three sixty nine

14:59

calories or thirty four Our mission

15:01

who and all the astronauts of the nineteen

15:03

sixty three Mercury Mission returned with uneaten

15:05

food. The Soviets

15:07

developed a wider menu a little bit more quickly than

15:09

Americans, although they stuck largely with

15:12

the tube delivery system UM. They

15:14

expanded to thirty options thirty

15:16

of tubes in those early years, and

15:18

and also offered UM some other some

15:20

other actual kind of solid food, rolls

15:23

that could be eaten in a single bite, pieces

15:25

of salami, and drinks like berry

15:28

juice and beet juice. By

15:32

the time the nineteen sixty five Gemini mission

15:34

rolled around, they were given more variety

15:36

the Americans. Anyway, From that same Los

15:38

Angeles Times article, the

15:40

two thousand, five hundred calorie four MELA

15:42

day sample menu might look something like this

15:45

meal a sugar frosted

15:47

flakes, sausage patties, toast

15:50

squares and orange grapefruit juice,

15:53

meal be tuna, salad, cheese, sandwiches,

15:56

apricot pudding and grape juice.

15:59

They'll see pot rose, carrots and cream

16:01

sauce, toasted bread cubes, pineapple cubes

16:04

and tea and meal d

16:06

potato soup, chicken bits,

16:09

squares, apple saws, brownies

16:12

and grapefruit juice. Great

16:14

frujuice there twice so popular.

16:18

The astronauts injected the pouches with water

16:20

from the water gun and needed it to the proper

16:22

consistency. Cut open the pouch

16:25

to get to a plastic tube for squeezing

16:27

out the food, and then once finished, sealed

16:29

it again with a tablet inside that prevented

16:31

rotting. You really didn't want that. Each

16:34

meal came with two sticks of

16:36

gum and a towel soaked

16:38

with an antibacterial substance.

16:41

Yes, these packages could last two

16:43

years at least, And

16:46

then John

16:48

W. Young snuck a corned beet

16:50

sandwich aboard the Gumni three in

16:53

nu first

16:55

sandwich in space yep, and

16:57

it necessitated a mandatory astronaut

17:00

inventory before each mission. Man

17:02

NASA was so displeased about it. They

17:04

were really were They

17:06

were not entertained the Nope. The

17:09

Apollo missions um the first ones. The

17:11

line on the Moon saw even greater leaps

17:14

in terms of taste of space food. The

17:16

new space amenity hot water

17:21

made rehydrating foods easier and faster

17:23

and then improve the flavor. Sure, hot

17:26

hot foods are hot sometimes, yeah, which

17:28

is awesome. Another innovation

17:30

was the spoon bowl, which is what it

17:32

sounds like. The food

17:35

stuck to the spoon thanks to the moisture leftover

17:37

from rehydration. That's cool. Wet

17:39

packs aluminium or plastic pouches that

17:42

kept food moist and didn't require rehydration

17:44

were introduced as well, and

17:46

then a follow seven.

17:50

This is the mission with perhaps one of the most

17:52

famous space foods astronaut

17:54

ice cream freeze dried ice cream. Yes,

17:57

yes, it was a career request of

17:59

the Eat mission, but freeze

18:02

dried ice cream only made one

18:04

trip to space. Why m

18:06

hmm, because most of the crew didn't like

18:09

it. The texture was all wrong, the taste

18:11

kind of blow. They said it was like styrofoam.

18:13

I mean it was. It wasn't like ice cream

18:15

at all. But it's great. As

18:17

a kid, I loved this stuff so much.

18:20

I haven't had it in like decades,

18:22

but I'm

18:24

not sure i've ever had it. Is dipping dots? Is that

18:26

what that is? No? Okay,

18:29

well then that's what I've had.

18:32

I haven't had the I've seen it. It's like a block of Neapolitan

18:35

ice cream. Okay, we'll have to get some, Okay,

18:38

alright, I'm down. The

18:40

crew of Apollo eight enjoyed Thermost

18:43

stabilized turkey and gravy, cranberry sauce,

18:45

and fruitcake on Christmas Eve nine

18:48

as they orbited around the Moon. What a great, great

18:51

view while you have your turkey, Thermost

18:53

stabilized turkey, all

18:56

the comforts of home. I know, the

19:00

of it. Bacon square was the first food item consumed

19:02

on the Moon in nineteen sixty nine,

19:05

and moon diets had to be high in potassium

19:07

to prevent any irregularities and heart

19:09

rhythm. I don't know if the bacon

19:12

cube helped with that, but perhaps it did.

19:16

The first Russian cosmonauts had food

19:18

options, harkening back to the first American missions,

19:21

mostly like Lawrence said, out of tubes, mr dried

19:24

on later missions. In ninete

19:27

a, Russian cosmonauts celebrated the birthday

19:29

of Victor Pots with

19:32

tubes of prune paste and a smuggled

19:35

lemon and onion. What

19:37

a birthday more smuggling, I know. Apollo

19:41

eleven introduced a contingency feeding

19:43

system of liquids eaten through

19:46

an opening in the helmet should the cabin become

19:48

depressurized. Yeah. A

19:50

canteen that granted astronauts um

19:53

of drinking water I wrote granted

19:55

of drinking water while

19:59

working on the Moon was added to the

20:01

space suits for a follow thirteen and Apollo

20:03

fifteen moonwalkers were given africat

20:05

bars to tie them over a while on

20:07

the lunar surface. This was also the

20:09

first mission that had no leftovers props

20:13

to them. Before Apollo,

20:15

the average weight loss per astronaut was three to four

20:18

pounds, sometimes up to ten pounds.

20:20

Oh, that doesn't just have to do with with a

20:22

lack of food. Intake, of course, the muscle

20:25

wasting. They hadn't quite figured out how to how

20:27

to combat that, or even what was going on

20:29

at that point yet. Um As

20:31

of nineteen sixty nine, though, NASA's

20:33

space food still left a little bit of something

20:36

to be desired. UM. After living

20:38

on Apollo programmed food for three days,

20:40

NASA Spacecraft project manager

20:43

Don Arabian reported that he had

20:45

quote lost the will to live and

20:48

that the sausage patties

20:51

tasted like granulated rubber. That

20:54

doesn't sound like something I would enjoy either,

20:57

But more innovations were coming. Yes.

21:00

The next big thing in space food occurred

21:02

with the nineteen seventy three Skylab mission,

21:05

which came with a designated dining area

21:07

so astronauts could sit down thanks

21:10

to foot straps, at a table and eat, and

21:13

with the help of solar powered cells,

21:15

Skylab was the first to have a freezer and

21:17

refrigeration. This meant

21:19

more choice for the astronauts seventy

21:22

two more choices. In fact, warming

21:24

trays debut on this mission. To These

21:27

trays could be attached via velcro to the

21:29

astronauts lab or to the wall, and

21:31

they allowed for eating several things at once without

21:34

the tray and opened pouch had to be finished

21:36

off before you could open another one. Astronauts

21:38

could even design their own menu as

21:40

long as it met the requirements of a dietitian,

21:43

and liquid salt and pepper were

21:45

introduced on this mission. The standard

21:47

menu cycled every seven days,

21:50

and setting up a meal at this time

21:52

took thirty minutes. Sky Lab

21:54

also had a pantry with

21:56

an extra two thousand one calories

21:59

for two days for person in the case of

22:01

bad weather or another event

22:04

that unexpectedly extended the

22:06

mission. There's also a backup

22:08

with enough food to last the crew for three weeks,

22:10

called the safe Haven system.

22:13

During the American Soviet mission of

22:15

nineteen seventy five, astronauts

22:17

eight things like jellied beef, tongue borshed,

22:20

and caviare. And

22:23

then in Nive, a

22:25

Mexican payload specialist by the name

22:27

of Faldo nari Vela introduced

22:30

a serious innovation to his fellow

22:32

NASA Space Shuttle astronauts, the

22:34

flower tortilla. What after

22:37

he requested them for his mission and they were a

22:39

hit with the other astronauts. NASA set

22:41

to developing a more long lasting

22:43

version of the tortilla you know so things could be

22:46

shelf stable for a few months. Um.

22:48

They wound up using tortillas from a manufacturer

22:50

that sells to Taco Bell, which had

22:52

come out with a twelve month shelf stable

22:55

product in the nineteen nineties. Um,

22:57

though they say that they do use fresh tortillas

22:59

for shortness in Astronaut Sandra

23:02

Magnus wrote in two thousand eight, I

23:04

cannot think of anything that cannot be put

23:06

on a tortilla or has not been put on a

23:08

tortilla. You really want to be swimming

23:11

in tortillas for your whole increment.

23:13

Wow, passionate feelings about

23:16

tortillas in space. I understand. As

23:19

the duration of missions lengthened, new

23:22

packaging was developed, a trash

23:24

compactor was developed. Yeah

23:26

in the galley was redesigned

23:29

and the electronics updated. Both

23:31

the weight and volume were reduced. Coca

23:33

Cola experimented with ways to get the perfect

23:35

carbonated beverage in space, despite

23:38

that whole weird gas expansion thing UM

23:40

on space Shuttle missions in the eighties and nineties,

23:43

sending space cans and a soda

23:45

fountain. They haven't quite

23:47

got it right yet, though. The carbon dioxide

23:49

bubbles and stuff like SODA's mixed

23:52

randomly with the surrounding liquid

23:54

when it's in space, meaning that they're usually

23:56

more like foam than they are drink

23:59

And unfortunately, even

24:01

if you can get it right and you know, like drink

24:03

it, carbonation really

24:06

isn't cool in year zero gravity um

24:09

on on Earth, gravity draws the

24:11

liquid in a coke or you know, like a beer

24:13

or whatever, to the bottom of your stomach, while

24:15

the carbon dioxide gases will rise to the

24:17

top and come out in burps. In

24:20

in low gravity, though, the liquid

24:22

and the air mix and your

24:24

verbs come out wet oh

24:28

or the gases pass into your

24:30

digestive system, which might cause adverse

24:32

effects, neither of which I'm

24:35

not even sure which one I want less, I'll

24:38

take neither. Thank you, neither

24:40

for the wind. Nowadays,

24:43

the category of space food has expanded so

24:45

much. From period paste squeezed

24:48

from tubes. For each six

24:50

months spent on I s S crew members

24:52

get to choose in nine preference containers.

24:55

I like the sound of that, from a main

24:57

menu of over items. Those

25:00

items run the gambit from Japanese takeout,

25:02

Swedish meatballs, tortillas, space

25:05

kimchi, and the ever popular shrimp

25:07

cocktail. NASA has

25:09

sixty thermo stabilized foods and fifty

25:12

freeze dried products under their belt, and

25:14

famous chefs like Emerald Lagassi have

25:17

helped create some space food recipes. On

25:19

Holiday's crew has allowed special request

25:21

and they get special treat packages and by friends

25:24

or families called psychological support

25:26

kits. Charles

25:29

similar Simionium

25:32

paid sixty million for two visits

25:34

to the I S S and two thousand and six

25:36

two thousand seven. He's a rich software guy,

25:38

f y I and he brought with him

25:41

m duck breast quail and

25:43

Similina cake prepared by Aline Ducass.

25:46

That's probably the fanciest meal consumed

25:49

in space to date. And

25:51

an unmanned resupply rocket

25:54

carrying six hundred pounds

25:56

of equipment and one thousand, three hundred

25:58

sixty pounds of food exploded October.

26:02

Yeah, that kind of hurt my heart when I read it. Yeah.

26:05

In the first Italian woman

26:07

to go to space, as Samantha Christopher Ready,

26:10

drank the first legit space espresso

26:13

on the I S s UM. The machine

26:15

was a joint experiment by the Italian

26:17

Space Agency, engineering

26:20

firm Agritech Yes and

26:22

UH Coffee Company Lavasa. The

26:24

project took two years to complete. Of

26:27

course, it can also make hot tea

26:29

and consumme a um. But but even though

26:31

the system is way different than earth bound

26:33

machines, you can even get a waft of coffee

26:36

scent from your cup or the pouch.

26:38

The pouches designed to emit

26:40

odor when you insert your straw. That

26:44

sounds gross, but I bet it's

26:46

lovely. It's just a weird way to think

26:48

about it. The pouch omits

26:50

odor. And with that

26:53

we do have some more for you, including

26:55

booze in space. Has it been there? Of course

26:57

it has. But first we're going to take

27:00

another quick break for a word from our sponsor,

27:12

and we're back. Thank you sponsor. Okay,

27:15

so booze in space. Obviously,

27:18

you don't want a bunch of astronauts floating

27:20

around drunk while they're supposed to be you know, science,

27:22

sing and like staying alive. But

27:26

of course there's been boozin space of course.

27:29

Um Russian cosmonauts had cognac

27:32

and their rations during the early days

27:34

of the space age. UM one

27:36

reported that their doctors had recommended

27:38

it. Uh quote, we we used

27:41

we used it to stimulate our immune system and

27:43

on the whole to keep our organisms in

27:45

tone, in tone. The

27:48

first liquid poured and perhaps consumed

27:51

on the Moon was actually wine. Buzz

27:54

Aldrin, who was an elder at his Presbyterian

27:56

church, arranged to take communion

27:58

on the Sunday that he and Neil Armstrong landed

28:00

on the Moon. Before they left lunar

28:03

module, he took the wine

28:05

and bread and radioed a message back to

28:07

Earth. It wound up not being broadcast

28:09

due to some PR trouble

28:11

that NASA was having regarding separation of church

28:14

and state. Um. But what he said was, I

28:16

would like to request a few moments of silence,

28:18

and to invite each person listening in wherever

28:21

and whomever they may be, to pause for

28:23

a moment and contemplate the events of the past

28:25

few hours, and to give thanks in his or

28:28

her own way, which

28:30

I think is lovely. Yeah. Um.

28:33

In the early seventies, with the sky

28:35

Lab overhaul of the NASA menu,

28:37

food researchers tried their

28:39

darndest to include wine with their

28:42

menu offerings, a four ounce ration

28:44

every four days. They settled on sherry

28:47

because, as it's already been heated

28:49

during production, they figured it would be the least

28:51

damaged by the space packaging

28:53

process. But the plan went

28:56

seriously sideways. Uh. First

28:58

of all, when public, when the public got wind

29:01

of the idea, um, some some

29:03

people got really upset. They didn't

29:05

like the concept of astronauts these these you

29:07

know, these all American heroes that are children

29:09

are watching. They didn't like the thought of them

29:12

drinking. Secondly, when

29:14

NASA tested the sherry on a

29:16

low gravity plane, um,

29:20

let me let me quote Charles Borland,

29:22

a space food engineer, the

29:24

odors released by the wine, combined

29:27

with the residual smell of years worth of

29:29

people getting sick on the plane, had

29:31

an unplanned effect on the crew.

29:33

Many grabbed for their barth bags. The

29:37

sherry was not sent to space. NASA

29:41

would later outlaw any drinking

29:43

in space from its astronauts, and the

29:45

official I s S statement on

29:48

booze in space is that because alcohol

29:50

is a volatile compound, astronauts

29:52

drinking could muss up their water

29:55

recycling program,

29:57

but that does not preclude alcohol from

30:00

being used experimentally. One

30:02

microbiology project out of the University

30:04

of Colorado, through NASA's Space

30:06

Product Development, brewed a

30:08

wee batch of beer in space. Huh.

30:12

It's east cell count was kind of low, and there was

30:14

more of one of the yeast's proteins

30:16

than usual, though the researchers aren't sure why

30:19

that's interesting. More they think it might be

30:21

like a stress response protein.

30:24

The East were like, I know, right,

30:27

or feeling something. For use, whiskey

30:31

maker Art Beg sent a

30:34

few vials of Scotch whiskey distillate

30:36

plus oak shaving oak cast

30:38

shavings up to the I s S to see

30:40

how microgravity would affect the

30:42

flavors pulled from barrels during

30:45

aging. And yes, the shavings

30:48

part is unusual, don't worry. They

30:50

also kept a few vials on Earth as a control. Near

30:53

zero gravity seemed to inhibit the

30:55

extraction of some compounds from the

30:57

wood, leading to an unusual

30:59

balance of flavor compounds overall

31:02

in the whiskey um. When they tested

31:04

both samples back on Earth, yes they drank

31:06

the space whiskey. The Earth sample

31:09

smelled and tasted like art

31:11

beg um. The space sample

31:14

was basically totally different. And

31:16

Okay, I'm gonna quote the kind of extensive

31:18

tasting notes from both samples because it's just super

31:21

fascinating to me. Okay, so Earth

31:23

sample a roma very woody,

31:25

hints of cedar, sweet smoke

31:27

and aged balsamic vinegar, hints

31:29

of raisins, chuckled toffee, of

31:32

vanilla and burnt oranges. Taste

31:34

dry palette, woody balsamic flavors,

31:37

sweet smoke and clove oil, a distant

31:39

fruitiness, prunes, dates, uh,

31:42

some charcoal and antiseptic notes. The

31:44

aftertaste is long, lingering and typically

31:46

art beg with flavors of gentle smoke,

31:49

briarwood, tar, and some sweet

31:51

creamy fudge sounds.

31:54

Lovely um from the I s S sample

31:57

a roma intense and rounded

31:59

with notes antiseptic smoke, rubber,

32:02

smoked fish, and a curious

32:04

perfumed note like a cassis

32:06

or violet, powerful woody

32:08

notes, hints of graphite and some vanilla.

32:11

This then leads into very earthy

32:13

soil notes, a savory beefy

32:15

aroma, and then hints of rum and raisin

32:18

flavored ice cream taste

32:20

a very focused flavor profile with smoked

32:23

fruits, prunes, raisins, sugar plums and cherries,

32:26

earthy pete smoke, peppermint, aniseed

32:29

cinnamon, and smoked bacon or hickory

32:31

smoked ham. The aftertaste is

32:33

pungent, intense and long, with hints

32:36

of wood, antiseptic lozenges

32:38

and rubbery smoke, rubberies

32:41

smoke. I

32:44

mean, that's a lot of word salad, but like, but they were

32:46

just distinctly different. And I think that's great.

32:48

Yea space whiskey science.

32:52

That's some fascinating science right

32:54

there. Yeah, more

32:56

research is clearly necessary, and

33:00

one one study with with rats from suggested

33:03

that a compound founded red wines

33:05

um reservera troll could

33:07

help astronauts stave off the muscle

33:10

waste that happens without rigorous exercise

33:12

in low gravity and environments. Um

33:14

so maybe in the future, with longer space

33:16

missions, bringing along a little bit

33:18

of wine wouldn't be considered it superfluous.

33:22

Let us all forget about supplements. Yeah,

33:25

yeah, forget about those things. But hey,

33:27

speaking of the future, let's

33:30

talk about the future. Yes. So,

33:33

now that NASA and other

33:36

space traveling entities are planning missions

33:38

with even longer durations,

33:40

like um, I don't know, mission to Mars,

33:43

one of the main goals is to take the current

33:45

eighteen months shelf life of foods

33:47

and extend it to five years. Yeah.

33:50

One option that NASA is looking at would

33:52

have crew members building a hydroponic

33:55

growth lab and growing fresh produce inside.

33:57

This would be a solution for menu

34:00

cheek, which on a year plus long mission

34:02

becomes a real concern. Cooking

34:04

and space, however, really

34:06

difficult, if not impossible, thanks to that whole

34:08

gravity thing, along with the host of energy

34:11

and space considerations like

34:13

like area space not

34:15

space. Yeah, I didn't even think

34:17

about that. The journey to Mars

34:19

would take about two and a half years,

34:22

by the way, and require somewhere around

34:24

twelve tons of food.

34:27

Yes, people eat man, that's

34:29

crazy, okay yep, potentially sent to

34:31

Mars separately before the human crew takes

34:33

off um

34:36

of four months. Experiment conducted

34:38

in examined that the implications

34:41

and limitations of astronauts cooking their own food.

34:44

The stipulations were among the six

34:46

crew members. Food could only be cooked

34:48

on certain days, Only shelf

34:50

stable products like honey our rice

34:52

could be used, and only a limited

34:54

amount of energy expanded on things like a hot

34:56

plate. All the participants

34:58

preferred days when they cook something.

35:01

They said it allowed for creativity and social

35:03

bonding. A few projects

35:06

have been looking into three D printing as a potential

35:08

solution to cooking in Space that

35:10

the basic idea is that you could use good

35:12

old tubes of food stuff as ingredients,

35:15

and that that the printer could make those

35:17

into different dishes. We'll

35:19

have to do a whole episode about about three D food printing

35:22

sometime. Yes, it's pretty great.

35:24

I'm so on board with red

35:28

romaine. Lettuce became the first crop grown and

35:30

eaten. Space Three crew members

35:32

toasted their lettuce after dipping the

35:34

pieces in olive oil. I

35:36

know, and they were quite satisfied with the

35:38

taste. I do remember when this happened

35:41

being in the news. Longer missions

35:43

also expand on the nutrient deficiency

35:45

problem, like shrinking bones and

35:47

squashed eyeballs. I

35:50

didn't look into that, but I saw it

35:52

and it scared me. Oh yeah,

35:54

microgravity does things to your eyeballs

35:57

that I don't want squashed eyeballs. I don't

35:59

want like astronauts getting that that.

36:02

This sounds terrible. No, no, no, no one, No one

36:04

deserves a squashed eyeball. Um,

36:07

there's if there's anything we've learned from Game of Thrones.

36:09

Uh by, by the way, um,

36:11

if you are interested in the kind of history

36:13

part of all of this, there's a really terrific textbook

36:16

called the Astronauts Cookbook that was co

36:18

written by Um. By that guy I quoted

36:20

earlier about the about the Sherry Um

36:23

who worked in NASA's Space Food program

36:25

for thirty years. So he has a lot

36:27

of stories in there. Look it up, check

36:30

it out. And other than

36:32

that, that wraps up our episode

36:34

on space food. Yeah, that was a crash course.

36:37

Okay, so that brings us to listener

36:40

mail. Yes, so

36:42

the first one comes from Drew who

36:45

wrote in about another exploding

36:47

food stuff. Yes, so many

36:49

beer. If you ever

36:51

do an episode on beer or homebrewing

36:54

your own beer, just realized that fermenting is

36:56

a very dangerous process. I

36:58

learned homebrewing from a friend who got started about

37:00

six months before I did, and we have been competing

37:02

with each other ever since. My

37:04

first big brew at home was also my most

37:07

dangerous. I did everything properly,

37:09

and I put a special blow off valve to release

37:11

the CEO two that builds up with the yeast

37:14

as it eats the malt sugars and poops out CEO

37:16

two and alcohol. So I note I always loved

37:18

saying that alcohol is yeast poop. I

37:20

made a very strong beer and feel filled

37:22

my carboy pretty full. I figured

37:25

the blowoff valve would be sufficient, but

37:27

unfortunately I would soon find out

37:29

it wasn't. That night, at

37:31

the night I brewed my first or second beer, I

37:33

put it to rest in my closet went to bed.

37:36

As I was lying and trying to sleep, I heard a very

37:38

strange sound. I heard

37:40

a big thunk and would appeared to be a pop.

37:43

At first, I didn't think much about it, but

37:45

I had a dreaded feeling. I got

37:47

out of bed and checked all my beer and discovered

37:50

that it had blown up and beer splattered

37:52

all over my closet. I

37:54

proceeded to take the carboy out and clean

37:57

everything up. Knowing that natural yeast

37:59

and bacteria was highly likely to be entering the carboy.

38:01

I capped it off with the blow valve again and

38:03

put it in my kitchen and proceeded to clean up my closet.

38:06

Within a minute of getting started on cleaning,

38:08

I heard a dreaded pop and salve beer all

38:10

over my kitchen. This happened

38:12

another two times, with me panicking

38:14

over what to do in the middle of the night. I

38:17

ended up giving up for the night and just leaving

38:19

it open to the elements. I

38:21

spent a few hours cleaning my kitchen and closet

38:23

for going to sleep, and then fixing my beer in the morning.

38:26

Thankfully, it turned out okay, but definitely

38:28

tasted different. I hope you

38:30

enjoyed the explosion story and a cautionary

38:32

tale for anyone wishing to get into brewing

38:35

beer. I did solve the problem pretty

38:37

quickly after that, and I have no problems with exploiting

38:39

beers since. Oh

38:42

yeah, so cautionary tale indeed

38:44

for anyone looking to homebrew. Yeah,

38:48

I'd like to try it one day, but I've

38:51

always been kind of terrified. I guess, I

38:55

guess we should. Yeah, I

38:57

mean for science. I've got a basement for the show.

38:59

Okay, Well, there we go. Excellent.

39:02

Okay. Also, um Alexa

39:05

wrote in about an alcohol

39:07

emission from our Oyster episode Uh,

39:09

saying, my favorite shot to introduce

39:12

my friends too is an oyster shooter. Typically

39:14

it is vodka, although it's some Mexican restaurants

39:17

they defaulted tequila. Bloody Mary Mix

39:19

also loved that episode, thank you. Uh.

39:21

And a medium shell oyster balanced

39:24

on the rim of the shot glass. You then plup

39:26

the oyster into the shot glass, swirl

39:28

it up and kick it back. It's a delicious

39:30

way to enjoy an oyster. And since you had episodes

39:33

on two of the three ingredients, I thought I would write

39:35

to you. I've only ever had them in Boston,

39:38

so I'm not sure if this is just a Boston thing, just

39:40

a New England thing, or if other areas of the

39:42

country have also indulged in this

39:44

shot. Hopefully you guys can try it sometime

39:46

and let me know if you enjoy them as much as I do.

39:49

I have seen these on menus around

39:52

here, not too too often.

39:54

Yeah, yeah, I feel like I've heard of

39:56

the concept, yes, but I've never

39:58

had one. I've never had one either, Definitely,

40:00

there are places around here that do it, um,

40:03

but it's I doubt it's as

40:05

common probably as it is in New

40:07

England, places where oysters

40:09

are fresher. Yes, yeah, I would love to try

40:11

though. Yeah, Okay, new project. We have

40:14

so many Every episode ends with all this great homework.

40:17

This is the best homework I know. So

40:19

thank you to both of them for

40:22

writing into us. If you would like to write

40:24

to us, we have an email. It is food Stuff

40:26

at how stuff works dot com. We are

40:28

also on social media. You can find us on

40:30

Facebook and Twitter at food Stuff

40:32

hs W stands for how Stuff Works, and

40:35

on Instagram at food Stuff.

40:37

Further, thanks to our audio

40:39

producer Alex Williams

40:42

given us a thumbs up, got his name

40:45

first right on the first try. Um,

40:47

we hope to hear from you uh, and we hope

40:50

that lots more good things are coming your way