What do astronauts eat?

As you know, astronauts’ food is considered the healthiest food. And this is no coincidence. After all, the conditions in which the astronauts are for a long time are truly extreme. This is stress for the body, therefore, nutrition, respectively, must be very attentive.

Healthy food for astronauts, rich in vitamins and microelements, is pre-processed to remove various microbes and other harmful substances.

The range of products for astronauts varies from country to country. It should be noted that the most diverse selection at NASA. But at the same time, the differences with ordinary earthly food are very insignificant.

They prepare food for the astronauts, of course, on Earth, then the astronauts take it with them into space, it is already packaged in jars. Food is usually packed in tubes. The original tube material was aluminum, but today it has been replaced by multi-layer laminate and coextrusion. Other containers for food packaging are cans and bags made of various polymeric materials. The diet of the first cosmonauts was very meager. It consisted of only a few types of fresh liquids and pastes.

The main rule of lunch for astronauts is that there should not be any crumbs, since they will fly apart, and it will be impossible to catch them later, while they are able to get into the astronaut’s respiratory tract. Therefore, special bread is baked for astronauts, which does not crumble. That is why bread is made in small, specially packaged pieces. Before eating, it is heated, like other products that are in tin containers. In zero gravity, astronauts while eating must also make sure that pieces of food do not fall, otherwise they will float around the ship.

Also, when preparing food for astronauts, chefs should not use legumes, garlic and some other foods that can cause bloating. The point is that there is no fresh air in the spacecraft. In order to breathe, the air is constantly being purified, and if the astronauts have gases, this will create unnecessary complications. For drinking, special glasses have been invented, from which the astronauts suck the liquid. Everything would simply float out of an ordinary cup.

The food has been turned into a puree that looks like baby food, but tastes good for adults. For example, the diet of astronauts includes such dishes as: meat with vegetables, prunes, cereals, currant, apple, plum juice, soups, chocolate cheese.With the development of this area of ​​nutrition, astronauts were able to eat even real cutlets, sandwiches, roach backs, fried meat, fresh fruit, as well as strawberries, potato pancakes, cocoa powder, turkey in sauce, steak, pork and beef in briquettes, cheese, chocolate cakes … The menu is quite varied, as you can see. The main thing is that their food should be in the form of a dried concentrate, hermetically packaged and sterilized using radiation. After this treatment, the food is reduced to almost the size of a gum. All you need is to fill it with hot water, and you can refresh yourself. Now our ships and stations even have special stoves designed for heating space food.

Food to be freeze-freeze is first cooked and then quickly frozen in liquid gas (usually nitrogen). Then it is divided into portions and placed in a vacuum chamber. The pressure there is usually kept at 1,5 mm Hg. Art. or lower, the temperature is slowly raised to 50-60 ° C. At the same time, ice is sublimated from frozen food, that is, it turns into steam, bypassing the liquid phase – the food is dehydrated. This removes water from the products, which remain intact, with the same chemical composition. In this way, you can reduce the weight of food by 70%. The composition of food changes and expands constantly.

But, before a dish is added to the menu, it is given for preliminary tasting by the astronauts themselves, this is required to assess the taste, which is carried out on a 10-point scale. If a given dish is rated at five or less points, it is, accordingly, excluded from the diet. The astronauts’ daily menu is calculated for eight days, that is, it is repeated every next eight days.

In space, there are no dramatic changes in the taste of food. But at the same time, it happens that someone thinks sour salty, and salty, on the contrary, sour. Although this is rather an exception. It has also been noticed that in space, dishes that are unloved in ordinary life suddenly suddenly become preferred.

How many of you would not like to fly into space, provided that they will feed him that way? By the way, space food can be purchased to order, today you can even find it. If you are interested, you can try it, share it with us in the comments.