Our Mission › Forums › Week 3 › AMA – Ask Me Anything! › Ask me anything! With Maggie Coblentz, Food Research and Industrial Designer, Space Exploration Initiative › Chat about the Future of Space Food with Maggie! › Reply To: Chat about the Future of Space Food with Maggie!
Hi Claudia!
There sure are! NASA astronauts have a menu of roughly 200+ foods and beverages to choose from. You can see a full list of the menu items on page 3 of this doc: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/190537main_Classifying_Space_Food.pdf
Most space food products are dehydrated before they get sent to the International Space Station. The process of preparing food in space involves rehydrating it at the rehydration station, or heating it up between two heating pads in a special space oven that looks like a briefcase. Mixing and transferring ingredients is difficult in zero g, so food is typically eaten right out of the plastic packaging.
Here’s a cool video that shows ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti preparing a meal in zero g: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4exaXdPKS3Y
Do you have any ideas for a future space food meal?
Maggie 🙂