WELCOME

SPACE FOOD

Presented by:ELAINE BIJU JOSEPH

Department of Food Technology S7 FT, 20142822

Guided by: Mr. A.SURENDRA BABUAssistant ProfessorDepartment of Food Technology

INTRODUCTION• “Space foods are those food products specially

created and processed for consumption of astronauts in outer space.”(Space Food and Nutrition, NASA, 1999.)

• Advancements in food packaging, preservation, preparation and nutrient to meet the challenges of space resulted in many commercial products.

• Food needs to be edible throughout the voyage, and it also needs to provide all the nutrients required to avoid vitamin deficiency diseases.

OBJECTIVES

To study the history of space foodsTo understand the requirements & types of

space foodsTo review the recent advances in space food

technology & the packaging technology

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HISTORY• John Glenn in 1962, America's first man to eat anything in the

near-weightless environment of Earth orbit, found the menu to be limited.

• First Americans to the space-Stored in toothpaste like tubes, Food in cubed , powdered and liquid form .

• First man to the space- his lunch consisted of a liquid paste and chocolate sauce

• Freeze dried foods had to be re-hydrated which fond an unpleasant task

• Early food dehydration was achieved by cutting meat, fish, and certain fruits into thin strips and drying them in sunlight. Rubbing food with salt or soaking it in salt water, an early form of curing food, also helped preserve it.

PROJECT MERCURY( 1962-1964)

• The first space mission where food was taken on the trip was the Project Mercury trips of the 1960’s

• The first space foods were unappetizing, to say the least.• Most were semi-liquids that were squeezed from tubes

and sucked up through straws.• There were also bite-sized cubes of compressed and

dehydrated foods that were rehydrated by the saliva in the astronauts' mouths”.

Early Project Mercury flight food: food tube and drybite-sized snacks with a gelatin coating.

GEMINI( 1965-1967)• By the Gemini missions of 1965, NASA had developed freeze dried

foods that allowed a wide variety of foods to be served.• Some examples -grape and orange drinks, cinnamon toasted bread

cubes, fruit cocktail, chocolate cubes, turkey bites, apple-sauce, cream of chicken soup, shrimp cocktail, beef stew, chicken and rice, and turkey and gravy.

• Adequate nutrient intake became a health concern with extended space flights in the Gemini program. Each crew member was supplied with 0.58 kilograms of food per day.

Sample types of food that have been dehydrated and packaged in cellophane

for use by Gemini astronauts.

APOLLO( 1968-1975) • The Apollo mission was the first mission to use hot

water to rehydrate food.• first mission that spoons were used to eat food instead

of squeeze bottles. The wetness from the food made the food cling to the spoon and not float away.

• also introduced thermo stabilized pouches called wet packs.

• These flexible plastic or aluminum foil pouches kept food moist enough so that it didn't have to be rehydrated.

• The Apollo crew was able to dine on bacon squares, cornflakes, beef sandwiches, chocolate pudding and tuna salad.

• As Apollo 8 circled the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, the crew even feasted on fruitcake.

These Apollo spoon bowl parts show the complexity and engineering that went into the earlier years of space flight food packaging.

SKYLAB(1973)• The Skylab missions were the first to have large dinning rooms where

the astronauts could sit down and eat. • It also had on board refrigeration which the current space shuttle does

not have.• They had 72 different types of menu items in all. • Food warmer trays allowed astronauts to heat their food in-flight. • Foods consisted of products such as ham, chilli, mashed potatoes, ice

cream, steak and asparagus etc.

This Skylab food tray had individual recessed compartments into which the canned food item was

placed for heating. Skylab Astronaut Owen K. Garriott eating in

the Skylab dining area.

SPACE SHUTTLE( 1982) • By the early 1980s and the launch of the first space shuttle,

meals looked almost identical to what astronauts ate on Earth.• Astronauts designed their own seven day menus selected from

74 different foods and 20 drinks.• They prepared their meals in a galley with a water dispenser and

an oven.

Prepared foods on Shuttle food trays Velcroed tomiddeck stowage lockers.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS) ( 1998)

• The International Space Station (ISS) will become operational on a full-time basis with a crew of three.

• Later, the crew size will grow to a maximum of seven people.• The crew will reside in the Habitation Module (HAB). Food and

other supplies will be resupplied every 90 days by the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM).

• Most consumables on the international space are canned, frozen or wrapped in sealed packs.

Empty International Space Station food tray.

REQUIREMENTS?•  Must be nutritional • Easy to digest and palatable • Must be light • Properly sealed • Quick and easy to prepare and to clean up after• Must be engineered in a zero gravity environment• Bite-size portions to prevent crumbs in the cabin during

space flight • Stability at room temperature, due to the limitations of

refrigeration aboard the spaceship (KathyDe Antonis, Spacefood, 2009)

Advances in space food• Today, fruits and vegetables that can be safely

stored at room temperature are eaten on space flights.

• Astronauts sometimes request beef jerky for flights, as it is lightweight, calorie dense, and can be consumed in orbit without packaging or other changes.

• warm pouches of savory shrimp cocktail and apples with black current juice available.

Modern space foods

The Space Idli Mission (2012)

• Dr K Radhakrishna, additional director of the Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) preparing an Indian menu suitable for space.

• The first items of the space menu are now ready-tiny idlis, the size of Rs 2 coins, accompanied by flaming orange sambhar powder and creamy coconut chutney dust.

• The idlis are cooked and dried using infrared radiation at a temperature of 700º C, and then further dried by microwaving.

• space yoghurt-developed using pulsed electric field technology in which short bursts of electricity are passed through a fluid food.

• The pack, as it has been designed now, has ten such idlis. It is the equivalent of three normal sized idlis.

• “It is the perfect snack,” says Anil Dutt Semwal, senior scientist at DFRL, “And the cost is minimal: Rs 8 or 10 for a pack.

• Radhakrishna has also been working on space rasgullas.

METHODOLOGY

• Space foods are processed to ensure quality and safety. • Shelf life is determined by noting changes in product quality, and the lab has

specific methodology for testing.• Testing at the Space Food Systems Laboratory begins with sensory

evaluations.• Fresh fruits and vegetables are minimally processed -they're sanitized with a

200ppm chlorine rinse, air-dried and then placed on a food tray, ready to be stored in the fresh food locker. Some vegetables, like carrots and celery, are packaged in sealable bags.

• Once products and menus are green-lighted, -Flight Equipment Processing Contractor for processing, packaging and storing before being sent to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

• Two to three days before launch (or 24 hours for fresh foods), food lockers are placed onboard the shuttle, ready to go into space.

• There is still a battery of tests to be done before they are ready for space.

• -Chemical analysis to see they smell right and don’t disintegrate,• physical analysis to ensure they look right,• microbiological trials to confirm there are no micro-organisms,• vibration studies to find out whether they can withstand G-forces at

the time of launch.• All fresh foods need to be eaten within the first few days of a mission

because they spoil quickly. Foods going to the International Space Station must have a one-year shelf life, and any foods developed for future planetary expeditions or outposts must have a five-year shelf life [source: Iowa State University].

TYPES?• Fresh foods• Re- hydratable • Natural form • Intermediate moisture • Beverages • Thermo sterilized pouch • Thermo sterilized cans • Irradiated meat• Shelf stable Tortillas• Condiments

Fresh Foods

• These foods are neither processed nor artificially preserved.

• Examples include apples and bananas.

Rehydratable Foods• The water is removed from rehydratable foods to make

them easier to store.• This process of dehydration (also known as freeze drying) is

described in the earlier Gemini section. • Water is replaced in the foods before they are eaten.

Rehydratable items include beverages as well as food items. Hot cereal such as oatmeal is a rehydratable food.

Natural form foods

• These foods are ready to eat and are packaged in flexible pouches.

• Examples include nuts, granola bars, and cookies.

Granola bars

Intermediate moisture foods

• Intermediate moisture foods are preserved by taking some water out of the product while leaving enough in to maintain the soft texture.

• This way, it can be eaten without any preparation. • These foods include dried peaches, pears, apricots,

and beef jerky.

Beverages• Freeze dried drink mixes (coffee or tea) or flavored

drinks (lemonade or orange drink) are provided in vacuum sealed beverage pouches.

• Coffee and tea may have powdered cream and/or sugar added depending on personal taste preferences.

• Empty beverage pouches are provided for drinking water.

Thermostabilized foods• They are heat processed so they can be stored at room temperature.• Most of the fruits and fish (tuna fish) are thermostabilized in cans. • This includes products such as beef tips with mushrooms, tomatoes

and eggplant, grilled chicken and ham• The cans open with easy-open pull tabs similar to fruit cups that can

be purchased in the local grocery store.• Puddings are packaged in plastic cups.

Irradiated Food• Beef steak and smoked turkey are the only irradiated

products being used at this time.• These products are cooked and packaged in flexible foil

pouches and sterilized by ionizing radiation so they can be kept at room temperature.

Condiments

•  catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, taco sauce, and hot pepper sauce

• Packaged in Polyethylene dropper bottles

PACKAGING• Currently, scientists take advantage of materials such as Mylar®,

Aclar® and polyethylene to create flexible containers and pouches as well as sticking to old standards like foil pouches and aluminium for cans.

• Each package is given a barcode and coloured fabric fastener dots. The dots' colours match each crewmember with his or her menu items.

• For Shuttle the food package weight is about 0.5 pounds per person, per day.

• NASA’s beverage package is a modified Capri Sun package made from a foil laminate. Rehydratable and bite-sized foods are packaged using modified atmosphere techniques.

• Commercial pouches are used for thermostabilized and irradiated food.

• Each package is flushed with nitrogen three times before the final seal at 21 to 29 inches of Hg vacuum.

Packaging used for bite-sized foods. side view of a rehydratable food package.

.Septum adapter with

foil laminate seal

Foil laminate beverage package

Drinking straw with clamp

Commercial condiment pouch

Other packaging materials used for space foods include retortable pouches, commercial full-panel pullout aluminum cans, and commercial plastic pudding containers.

Precautions • Must be well packaged, quick to serve and must be

engineered in a zero gravity environment• Food for Astronaut’s must be compact, lightweight,

nutritious, tasty, sticky & shelf stable• Crumbs and liquids could damage equipment or be

inhaled• The knife, fork, spoon, and scissors are secured to

magnets on the food tray when they are not being used

HOW MUCH FOOD THEY HAVE & 

HOW THEY EAT?

•  3.8 pounds(1723.65gram) of food, including 1 pound (453.582g) of packaging, per astronaut for each day.

• The astronauts get three meals a day, plus snacks.•  A meal tray is used to hold the food containers • It’s attached to an astronaut's lap by a strap or attached to a wall. • The tray also holds the food packages in place and keeps them

from floating away in the microgravity of space.

FUTURE • In the future, NASA is looking to send astronauts to outposts on the

moon and Mars.• Although the target for liftoff for the moon mission is not until

2020, efforts are already under way at the Space Food Systems Lab.• Scientists in the Advanced Food Technology group, led by NASA

food scientist MichelePerchonok, are developing foods that are “nutritious, good tasting, and provide variety for a

3-year mission.”• The biggest challenge for these future missions is a food’s shelf life.• According to recent developments, 3D printing may also shape the

future of space food for long duration missions. (Carmen Victoria Felix )

Using a modified RepRap, 3Dprintler 3D printed icing on cookies at Tech Links Ottawa in November.

SQ & MA Lead Matthew Napoli works with a printer in the Made in Space clean room.

References• Casaburri.A. and Gardner.C., Space Food and Nutrition-An

Educator’s Guide With Activities in Science and Mathematics,(National Aeronautics and Space Administration),1999.

• Lyndon B. Space center , NASA Facts, August 2004.

• Antonis.K., Space food, chem matters, December 2009.

• Pultarova .T et.al. , Special report space food, Space safety magazine,2014.

THANK YOU