It is always interesting to look where in reality it will hardly be possible to visit. To fly into space, you need special training, but it is quite possible to taste the food of astronauts on earth, it is enough to order freeze-dried products on the Internet. You can even throw a space party where you can serve space food to everyone.
In the meantime, you can imagine what space borscht tastes like, we invite you to get acquainted with eight interesting facts about space food.
1. Despite the fact that Gagarin’s flight took only 108 minutes and the astronaut did not have time to get hungry, the launch plan meant eating. Then there were meat and chocolate in his tubes for food. But German Titov, during his 25-hour flight, was already able to eat – as many as 3 times: soup, pâté and compote.
2. Now in space they eat freeze-dried food – for this, the products are first frozen to 50 degrees, then dried by vacuum, then heated to 50-70 degrees, the ice evaporates, but the useful substances and the structure of the product remain. Moreover, scientists have learned to dry any food in this way.
3. Tea is the most difficult to sublimate. And the most delicious food, according to the astronauts themselves, is freeze-dried cottage cheese with berries and nuts. Food is packed in tubes and airtight bags. They are eaten with a fork straight from the package.
4. Food products for astronauts are safe and natural, they are absolutely free of any additives. Because of solar radiation and magnetic waves, scientists are afraid to experiment with these substances so as not to endanger people flying into space.
5. The food of American astronauts is 70 percent prepared foods, and 30 percent specially prepared.
6. Bread for astronauts is packed exactly 1 bite in size, so that the crumbs in the process of eating do not scatter in weightlessness and could not accidentally get into the airways of the astronauts.
There is a known case when astronaut John Young took a sandwich with him. But eating it in zero gravity turned out to be incredibly difficult. And bread crumbs, scattered around the spaceship, for a long time turned the life of the crew members into a nightmare.
7. Food on the spacecraft is heated in a specially designed device. Bread or canned food is heated in this way, and freeze-dried food is diluted with hot water.
8. All sodas in orbit are packaged in aerosol cans like whipped cream. But in general, astronauts try not to drink drinks with gas, because they cause belching, which is wet in zero gravity, unlike on earth. Plus, when the diaphragm contracts, food can go back into the esophagus, which is not very pleasant.
By the way, water in space is completely recycled: all waste is regenerated back into water.