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Space

Eating in Space 185

Posted by CmdrTaco from the tang-makes-me-ill dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "What do you think astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) ate for Thanksgiving? Roasted turkey? Wrong answer. In "Orbital Thanksgiving," NASA tells us they had tortillas and gives details about food in space. If the dining view, 200 miles over the Earth, is great, preparing meals is quite a challenge. For example, there is no refrigerator or freezer aboard the Station, so food must remain good for long periods at room temperature. And you need to avoid crumbs which could float around. This is why tortillas are favored over bread. This overview contains additional references and includes a picture of a cosmonaut preparing food in the ISS galley."
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Eating in Space More

Eating in Space

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  • Great! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Pingular ( 670773 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:16AM (#7592193)
    It's great to know that our space program is finally get properley underway, and that astronauts can now eat well. Next project could be getting TV for them?

    • Well (Score:3, Funny)

      by Jesrad ( 716567 )
      "Station crews have more than 250 food and beverage items they can select from the U.S. and Russian food systems, but they have to make their selections as early as a year before their flight," Kloeris said. "The choices range from barbecued beef to baked tofu, with probably the most popular item being shrimp cocktail," she said.

      They even have a wider range of available food than I do, and I live at a 5 minutes walk from the local supermarket...

  • No "Overlord" Replies, please. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:16AM (#7592194)

    "And you need to avoid crumbs which could float around."

    No Homer!

    They'll CLOG THE INSTRUMENTS!

  • hot and cold outside (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    face the sun, it's an oven
    face away, it's a freezer

    what's the problem?

    AC
    • Facing a vacuum does not make a freezer. Ever heard of a Dewar (vacuum) flask? I don't know, 19th century technology and already forgotten about in the 21st.
      • Even a dewar flask isn't a perfect insulator. On Apollo 13, one of the survival problems the astronauts had was just keeping warm enough. There wasn't enough fuel to spin the craft after the oxy tank exploded to keep the temperatures evenly distributed across the LEM. The astronauts got very cold as a result.

  • Turkey? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by heironymouscoward ( 683461 ) <heironymouscoward@NOsPAm.yahoo.com> on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:19AM (#7592210) Journal
    Actually I always believed that astronauts sucked pastes of different colors out of plastic sachets, brown-orange was "beef with carrots", and brown-yellow was "turkey breast with potatoes".

    If the often-nauseous smells coming from the gally aboard a plane are any indicator, the odour of heating food could be really nasty in space.

    And what's this about "no freezer"? What exactly is outer space, if not cold? No airlocks aboard the ISS?

    • Re:Turkey? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Space sure is cold, but there isn't much material to take the heat from you. They really can't freeze things by simply putting them outside the ISS.

    • Re:Turkey? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Chalybeous ( 728116 )

      It surely can't be as bad as those brightly-coloured "food cubes" that Captain Kirk and his crew used to eat (such as in Journey to Babel [ex-astris-scientia.org]).

      On the other hand, in Charlie X, I seem to recall Kirk ordering the galley to make a fake Thanksgiving turkey out of meatloaf. And real food was seen on occasion, emerging from those little slots in the rec room.

      Star Trek notwithstanding, I've always been kinda fond of that freeze-dried "space icecream". As for pastes - great for practicality (and very futuristic-s

    • COld? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mindstrm ( 20013 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:04AM (#7592320)
      Space is not cold. Space is not warm. Space is a vacuum.

      Space is a great insulator.

      • Insulator? (Score:3, Informative)

        by heironymouscoward ( 683461 )
        Vacuums are not insulators.

        I remember a great demonstration given in the Toronto Science Museum. A piece of rubber tubing placed into a bell jar. A vacuum pump extracting the air until it reached a near-vacuum. Pause... allow air back into the bell jar. Strike rubber with small hammer, rubber shatters and when touched, little pieces of it are _very_ cold indeed.

        An object in a vacuum radiates its heat and unless there is an equally warm object radiating heat back, it will cool off until it reaches the

        • Re:Insulator? (Score:5, Informative)

          by deander2 ( 26173 ) * <public@@@kered...org> on Sunday November 30, 2003 @01:15PM (#7593143) Homepage
          an object in a vacuum will radiate its heat, yes, but that is not why the rubber shattered.

          while the vacuum pump was working, it was decreasing the air pressure in the jar. lower the air pressure, lower the temperature of the remaining air. the rubber cooler by the same principle as your air conditioner.

          a vacuum is still a great insulator. (that's why my coffee mug here has a vacuum between the inner and outer shells :)
          • Yes, very clear.

            I retract my argument based on the rubber tube demonstration.

            Do you have any idea how fast heat radiation will cool an object in space? Stick a warm turkey in a plastic bag, chuck it out into space, how long will it take to freeze, and how cold will it get?

            Or will the turkey remain nicely hot for ages? If space is an insulator, this is what we'd expect...
            • You said: "Do you have any idea how fast heat radiation will cool an object in space?"

              Stefan's Law states: P = (sigma) * AeT^4, where P is the power radiated, (sigma) = 5.6696 * 10^-8 W/(m^2 * K^4), A is the surface area, e is the emissivity, and T is the temperature (in Kelvin). The emissivity can vary from 0 to 1 depending on the properties of the surface. An ideal absorber, which is also an ideal radiator, has an emissivity of 1 and is known as a black body. So, since an object can both radiate and a
              • An interesting comment but not really an answer.
                I believe this discussion demands a serious (as in swallows and coconuts) analysis and conclusion. In full shade, in Earth orbit, how fast would a hot turkey (say 12 lb?) cool, and to what temperature. In full sunlight, what would the answer be?

                First complete answer, even approximate, gets my next five mod points.
                • Average human body radiates about 1000 watt (calculations here [weber.edu].
                  We can approximate your turkey produces about 100 watt then.
                  With temperature drop we're interested in (from some 300 to 270K) we can neglect the temperature change.
                  That is 100J/s. Divided by 4200, 0.023 cal/s loss.
                  1 calorie will raise/lower temp of 1 gram of water 1 degree.
                  We want 6000 gram of nearly water (over 80% body weight) down 30 degrees. 180kcal calories to radiate. 7800000 s that is 90 days. Before the turkey freezes, it will be long ro
                • In the shade, check out this tool. [gsu.edu] To use it, we need to make some big assumptions:

                  Turkey does not lose mass to the vacuum (even water).
                  Turkey is a 11 cm radius sphere of density 1.0 (about the density of water) which puts it at just over 12 pounds.
                  Molar mass is 25: Water has a molar mass of 18, and in humans is about 65% of the body. use this as a guess as to the Turkey's water content, neglecting all other molecules the molar mass would be 18/.65=27.6. Subtract a fudge factor for other molecules

          • Re:Insulator? (Score:2, Informative)

            by Aglassis ( 10161 )
            You said: "a vacuum is still a great insulator. (that's why my coffee mug here has a vacuum between the inner and outer shells :)"

            There are 3 types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. Your thermos-like cup (technically a Dewar flask) effectively prevents conduction and convection, but that does not mean there is no heat transfer. Any object will radiate (with EM waves) away heat according to Stefan's Law. It will also absorb radiation according to Stefan's Law. As I described in an [slashdot.org]
          • a vacuum is still a great insulator. (that's why my coffee mug here has a vacuum between the inner and outer shells :)

            No, in a vacuum things will cool radiatively. The innner walls of your thermos are reflective, which prevents thermal radiation from crossing the vacuum. In space, things will cool off very quickly - if they are in shadow. In sunlight they will warm up. That's one of the many reasons it's hard to build spacecraft. As a satellite crosses into Earths shadow it's surface can drop by 150 deg

        • Actually, at Earth's distance from the Sun, the temperature of space is around 280K, or 7C [faqs.org]

    • Re:Turkey? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Yokaze ( 70883 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:09AM (#7592338)
      > And what's this about "no freezer"? What exactly is outer space, if not cold?

      Temperature is the mean kinetic energy of particles per volume. Space is quite empty, which keeps the temperature quite low. But, do you know what the best (heat-) insulator is? Vacuum.

      What one usually calls "cold" is not something of low temperature, but something with a lower temperature and a good heat conductance. Hence, a piece of metal of room temperature is cold.
      It "drains" the heat from you.

      • Re:Turkey? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by PhotoGuy ( 189467 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @11:17AM (#7592614) Homepage
        What one usually calls "cold" is not something of low temperature, but something with a lower temperature and a good heat conductance. Hence, a piece of metal of room temperature is cold.

        This is an excellent point, and is also the explanation of something I always wondered about when I was younger: why a swimming pool that's at 20'C (70'F-ish) seems noticably cooler than room temperature. Both room temperature and the water are much colder than our bodies, but water contacting your skin conducts away your heat much more effectively than the air.

      • Re:Turkey? (Score:5, Informative)

        by TarpaKungs ( 466496 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @11:37AM (#7592685)
        In space, an object will lose most of it's internal kinetic energy by radiation; it emits electromagentic (EM) radiation in relation to it's absolute temperature. Normally, in warm surroundings, the EM lost is balanced by EM receieved from surrounding objects - so when equilibrium is achieved, the temprature of the object stabilises (assuming no other sources of heat energy).

        But, do you know what the best (heat-) insulator is? Vacuum.
        No... Conduction is one loss mechanism. There will be little conduction in space. Radiation however is a very significant mechanism too. Check your thermos flask - it's silvered as well as presenting a vacuum barrier.

        In space, there is much lower background EM depending on whether you are in sight of the sun or not, so for best effect put your "freezer" out behind the ISS away from the sun and I think you'll find that stuff freezes pretty quickly.

    • Re:Turkey? (Score:2, Informative)

      by sandbagger ( 654585 )
      Hi:

      It's the *international* space station. Thanksgiving (as such) was invented in Canada and was a well-established holiday by the time the pilgrims landed in the US.

      Regardless, it's a North American holiday. Not everyone in the tin cans spinning above the Earth may have been celebrating it. Of course, it's a US press release, so...
      • Where have you heard that nonesense? When the pilgrams landed not much of anyone except vikings and eskimo's lived in Canada.

        I assure you they did not invent thanksgiving, and at the time of the first thanksgiving it's a safe bet they didn't email the pilgrams to let them in on it even if they had invented it.
    • > And what's this about "no freezer"? What exactly is outer space, if not cold? No airlocks aboard the ISS?

      An obvious flaw with this argument is that if indeed the inside of the ISS is at 0 degC, then why don't the astro/cosmo nauts freeze as well as their food?

      Or does their food orbit separately, and they go on a spacewalk each mealtime?

  • Wine or beer ? (Score:5, Funny)

    by emmanuelito ( 594270 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:19AM (#7592212)
    A what about drinks ? Have the effects of alcohol in space been studied ? I volunteer ! Emm

    • Ehhh... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Faust7 ( 314817 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:34AM (#7592455) Homepage
      Have the effects of alcohol in space been studied ? I volunteer !

      They probably stopped after the first volunteer mistook the Sun for the Earth and attempted re-entry.

    • Re:Wine or beer ? (Score:4, Funny)

      by JediTrainer ( 314273 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:39AM (#7592478)
      Um, there HAVE been Russians in space. Doncha think they smuggled some Vodka up? I mean, c'mon. A Slav without Vodka is like an Irishman without Guinness.
      • In this case, I think that producing alco up there is much easier then smuggling it through all the controls there are on the way. All you need is some water, sugar, flavour (like those fruits they have for the first few days), and some warmth (computers?).

        No wonder there are only smiling faces on all the pictures. :)

  • No refrigeration? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Tx ( 96709 )
    I wouldn't have thought keeping things cold was that big a challenge in space.

    • Re:No refrigeration? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:38AM (#7592257)
      I wouldn't have thought keeping things cold was that big a challenge in space.

      Temperature control is actually quite a problem so the ISS has a number of features [nasa.gov] to keep temperatures regulated. Overall, space in LEO is cold (averaging 0 F). The problem is that it is far too hot on the sunny side (250 F) and far too cold on the shady side (-250 F). Therefore the ISS is extremely well insulated to maintain an even temperature across the entire inside. But this insulation leads to other problems -- heat builds up from all the equipment. Thus, the ISS has a giant radiator to dump excess heat into space.

      • Fluid heat exchange circuits will kill people (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I don't want to be up there when either the water or the ammonia cooling circuits break. It's designed to kill people, either directly or through loss of environment control.

        Using fluid heat exchange in space implies either blind trust in technology or, less generously, that it is acceptable to increase the risk to your astronauts even beyond the risk inherent to being in space.

        It's simply nuts.

  • Food fights are forbidden (Score:5, Funny)

    by stere0 ( 526823 ) <slashdotmail@ste ... u minus language> on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:21AM (#7592218) Homepage
    Too many computers, electronics, etc. on the ISS to have food fights. If you want to have one, you have to go outside.
  • Just make sure they aren't Ruffles!

  • Zero gravity (Score:5, Funny)

    by cperciva ( 102828 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:24AM (#7592225) Homepage
    Quoth the article:
    Space and zero gravity offer challenges for food preparation.

    On the other hand, zero gravity offers unique advantages for food preparation: If you're careful, you never need to run out of counter space.

  • umm... Drink of Astronauts (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How could they write this article and not mention Tang ?

    umm.... orange powdery goodness....
  • How could they not have refrigeration!? Don't you get that for free by being in space!?

    "Dude, where's the Dews I just brought up here?"

    "Ugh! They were all warm, so I hung them out over the dark side of the station for a bit."

    • But since you're in a pretty good vacuum, there's no heat loss to conduction or convection... the only way to lose heat is by radiation.

      You could call space cold, and technically it is, but when there are only a few atoms per cubic metre it isn't really much of anything...

  • I highly recommend (Score:5, Interesting)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:28AM (#7592232) Homepage Journal
    the Space Station 3D [imax.com] movie in IMAX theaters. A must see if you are even remotely interested in space...or 3D movies for that matter.

    I, for one, was amazed at the clarity and crispness of the scenes filmed inside the ISS. I have seen other 3D IMAX movies too: Ghosts of the Abyss,etc...but this one beats them all by a huge factor.

    I know for sure it is (or was) running in Atlanta (Mall of GA), DC (Smithsonian Air and Space Museum) and Boston (Aquarium IMAX) last year. Google for it...definetly worth the effort. A few reviews and clips here [bigmoviezone.com].

  • No freezers? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mondoz ( 672060 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:31AM (#7592242)
    I guess they didn't want to mention the Enhanced Gaseous Nitrogen Dewar system, which keeps samples frozen at -321 degrees Fahrenheit...
    Or perhaps the ARCTIC freezer system, with 38 liters of -20C degree cold stowage...
    ISS Fact Sheets [nasa.gov]
    • So what are they going to use to heat the food back up? Even if they have something, is it worth the energy cost on a little self contained speck in the sky?

      • Re:No freezers? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Mondoz ( 672060 )
        They have heaters as well. Freeze-dried foods are often prepared with hot water. Heat is actually readily available on the station; as a by-product of running the equipment and computers, as well as the solar panels collecting power and storing it in the batteries. Large radiators constantly bleed off heat from the vehicle. On the Shuttle, the payload bay doors double as giant radiators. On arrival into orbit, the doors are opened almost immediately, even if there are no space walks planned or items to depl
  • I guess we're still a long way from astronauts eating locally grown food... :)

  • Tortillas??? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Pedrito ( 94783 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:47AM (#7592283)
    I doubt that was their main course. I mean, I live in Mexico, and I like tortillas as much as the Mexicans, especially when they're warm and fresh from the tortillaria. But they hardly qualify as a meal in themselves. I mean, they're made from cornmeal (or flour, if you go for those kind). Surely they had something with their tortillas, like freeze-dried ice cream maybe.

    • Re:Tortillas??? (Score:2, Informative)

      by charboy1 ( 468037 )
      Want to make your own Space Tortillas? You can find the recipe in one of the NASA Educational publications. Appendix F of Space Food and Nutrition contains the formulation (a.k.a. recipe) for Space Tortillas [nasa.gov]. The ISS Standard Menu [nasa.gov] is also included in Appendix E.

      Bon appetit!
      - charboy

  • Why no herb garden? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:48AM (#7592284)
    I'm surprised that none of the astronauts has snuck a small herb garden on board. Some fresh basil, chives, or parsley would surely enliven the food. You could probably grow these plants in a dirt-free medium by stuffing damp cloth fragments into a sock and keeping it damp. You could then velcro the planter near a window and let it grow.

    The plants might grow strangely in zero-G, but I'm sure the leaves would still taste OK.

  • Refrigeration (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DeepDarkSky ( 111382 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @09:49AM (#7592287)
    The lack of refrigeration does seem kind of odd, given that we always hear that space is "cold"

    However, thinking about it some more, I guess it's because of the relative vacuum of space that makes it more like a gigantic insulator - if you have heat on the ISS, it'd be difficult to dissipate it because there is no medium to carry the heat away. At least, I think that's what might be the case.

    • Heinlein discusses the very problem of ridding a closed system of heat in Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. I don't think it's a problem most laymen have considered, yet it's one of the biggest problems with designing spacefaring craft.

  • No Turkey is probably good (Score:3, Funny)

    by dillpick6 ( 699618 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:05AM (#7592325) Journal
    I wonder if they would complain about the Turkey being dry up there too..

  • Thankswhat? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Seehund ( 86897 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:10AM (#7592346) Homepage Journal
    What do you think astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) ate for Thanksgiving?

    Uh... That question hasn't really kept me sleepless. Considering that you're talking about the International Space Station...

    Well, now that the Spanish astronaut has left the station, Americans count for a whopping 50% of the astronauts aboard the station.

    I.e. one guy.

    Thanksgiving?
    • I'll preface this by saying I'm a Canadian, and we also celebrate thanksgiving, although a month earlier than the USA. I'm also not sure why we do it, other than "we needed a long weekend in October". I DO know why Americans celebrate it.

      A friend of mine once asked me if they celebrated Thanksgiving in the UK (and by extension, Europe in general). Neither of us has ever been there, but I'm known as a trivia buff, so he figured I'd know. Knowing why the USA celebrates it, but not why Canada does, I ventured
      • I think thanksgiving is generally classed as a harvest festival of sorts, so it's not surprising canada has one too -- basically a `whoa, we're not going to starve this winter!' celebration.

        [BTW, they certainly don't celebrate the american thanksgiving in scotland at least; I lived there for a few years, and t.g. for me was always a chicken chinese takeaway and a vague feeling of depression... :-]
  • "What do you think astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) ate for Thanksgiving?"


    A MacYoda menu?

    Diego
  • "And you need to avoid crumbs which could float around."


    How lazy of them.

    Diego Rey

  • in space, no one can hear farm animals scream (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Schlemphfer ( 556732 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:23AM (#7592404) Homepage
    There are essentially two ways to feed astronauts in space: to send food with them, or have them grow their own. Both choices pose problems, and this article only looked at the first choice. I personally find the second choice, the growing of food in space, to be far more interesting.

    After all, even with months-long space station stays, today's space stations are the equivalent of summer camp compared to what future astronauts will go through. Even if warp drives prove possible -- an enormous if -- astronauts will have to spend years aboard spacecraft to even reach relatively nearby parts of interstellar space.

    That being the case, the growing of food in space becomes practically a necessity. As space voyages lengthen, it becomes laughably inefficient to produce on earth the tons of food neccessary for the trip , and blast it into space.

    Growing food in space poses all kinds of challenges that make today's pre-packaged problems look trivial. Right from the start, it appears that producing meat, milk, and eggs in space is going to be prohibitively inexpensive. So instead, NASA is funding investigations into growing plants hydroponically--probably extracting minerals from astronaut's crap and urine. Doing this gets around the problem of having to send tons of food into space.

    The challenges of having animal agriculture in space are so extreme that it appears that virtually all serious research on space-borne food production is confined to vegan foods. This is purely a practical thing -- it's not as though the scientists at NASA have developed a sudden interest in animal rights. In fact, current studies involving vegan food production in space involve using rats [heilpflanzen-welt.de] to assess nutritional adequacies of what's being grown.

    But vegans can take heart. Even if they don't bring down animal agriculture on earth by 2525, it's a fair bet that Major Tom, blasting towards the Dog Star, will be eating a vegan diet -- whether he likes it or not.

  • Get it delivered (Score:3, Funny)

    by Easy2RememberNick ( 179395 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @10:35AM (#7592457)
    I have solved the problem.
    People on the ISS should order nothing but pizza, it solves the storage problem;hot or cold, the quality problem, the crumb problem...it's gold baby!
    And as a bonus since most pizza chains don't have their own rocket program it'll take more than 30 minutes to deliver it, so the food is free!

    PS Maybe the ISS crew member from the US should have had that [usatoday.com]
    Turkey and Gravy flavoured pop
    from Seattle. Un-carbonated though.
    • And as a bonus since most pizza chains don't have their own rocket program it'll take more than 30 minutes to deliver it, so the food is free!

      Unless of course, that chain is Pizza Hut [pizzahut.co.nz]

    • I tried to give the astronaughts a treat, I called my local Jimmy's pizza (better than any chain) delevery, but it turns out they only deliver within 10 miles, and ISS is always farther away than that, even when not on the other side of the earth.

      OTOH, 747s fly at less than that distance from the ground, next time I have to fly I'm going to order pizza with those inflight phones. I'm sure the captin will detour a little to hit the delivery area if I bri^h^h^hgive him a large pizza.

  • HUGE heat sinks (Score:4, Informative)

    by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @11:10AM (#7592587) Homepage Journal
    The ISS is cooled down by emmitting infrared radiation through gigantic heat sinks that use two closed loops: one with water - to take the heat out of the stations interior and to the heat sinks and the oher with ammonia - to take the heat out of the water and into the heat sink tubing (ammonia freezes at a much lower temperature than water. Water would just become ice and would clog the tubes.) Now THIS is some heat sink that could solve heating problems of a huge super-computer.
    I wonder what did MIR use for cooling down? [russianspaceweb.com]

    I like this chronology [russianspaceweb.com] - a very exciting reading.

  • Interesting tidbit (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I work for a local grocery chain in Houston and the store I worked at 2 months ago provides alot stuff to the ISS program. For instance, they order 110 lbs. of asparagus each time. What's interesting (but not suprising) is they called me to get the LOT number and other information pertaining to the origin of the asparagus. I had to direct them to our supplier but I thought it was cool in any case. Not to mention that I had a good sales ring that day...

  • No refrigerator? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tiny69 ( 34486 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @11:55AM (#7592767) Homepage Journal
    For example, there is no refrigerator or freezer aboard the Station, so food must remain good for long periods at room temperature.
    If the ISS doesn't have a refrigerator, then why does this picture [nasa.gov] have the following data plate in the upper right-hand corner:
    EX-3
    ONBOARD
    REFRIGERATOR

  • Space hair (Score:4, Funny)

    by utahjazz ( 177190 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @12:04PM (#7592813)
    Many male astronauts prefer to shave as little as possible, and all agree that it's one area in which their female colleagues have all the advantages.

    So women in space have hairy legs and hairy armpits? Cancel my ticket, I'll stay on Earth.
  • think about it eat all you want and still weigh next to nothing, literally. is space eating the next big diet?

  • Space tortillas (Score:5, Interesting)

    by apirkle ( 40268 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @01:16PM (#7593155)
    That explains this $136,216.20 proposal to NASA to study Development of Extended Shelf-Life for Tortillas for Long-Duration Space Missions" [uh.edu].

    They wanted to (or did?) use MRI scans of tortilla dough to determine whether there were any changes on a molecular level that could be linked to tortillas taking on a bitter taste after being on the shelf for extended periods of time.

    I wish I could get my own NMR spectrometer by saying that I want to study tortillas.

    Does anyone else find this to be hilarious?

  • I don't get the "no refrigerator" thing. (Score:4, Funny)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Sunday November 30, 2003 @04:46PM (#7594213) Journal
    I mean, either suit up and stick anything in the shadow of the ISS and it'll be cold pretty darn quick, or mount a metal box flush with any exposed bulkhead directly connected to the skin of the ISS on the shadowed side - you'll have a bloody cold little cupboard in no time.

    I mean, it's not like it's rocket science. Well, wait...

  • Extent of orbital normality (Score:3, Informative)

    by apsmith ( 17989 ) * on Sunday November 30, 2003 @05:02PM (#7594307) Homepage
    I recently attended a talk by a NASA education guy on the subject of living in space - on the shuttle and ISS. For the most part, it's really not that different from what you might expect; the main problem is not so much things intrinsic to zero gravity (though there's some of that with liquids, crumbs, etc.) but that NASA generally skimps on the sort of amenities you might think the astronauts could use. For example, there was no "table" on ISS, until the crew up there built one out of some surplus supplies. And, similarly, no refrigerator or freezer. Things will be quite different once the first space hotel [bigelowaerospace.com] goes up.
  • Who cares what they ate at ISS, I wanna know when they're going to have guests for Thanksgiving. =)
  • I doubt that they're eating anything specifically for Thanksgiving, seeing as none of them are from the US. (Michael Foale doesn't count, even if the UK does look more and more like the 51s state lately.)

  • For example, there is no refrigerator or freezer aboard the Station, so food must remain good for long periods at room temperature.

    ...or you could just put larger quantities in shielded canisters and leave them outside the station in the shade?

    I mean, if you're careful to make sure the container isn't air-tight, it would even be vacuum packed. How much better preservation do you need?

    Admittedly, the walk out to the fridge isn't one you'll make when you wake up at 3am wanting a snack...

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