WHAT DO ASTRONAUTS EAT?
Staying on the International
Space Station takes a huge toll on astronauts’ bodies. The very low gravity – known as microgravity – leads to drops in bone density of up to 20 per cent on a six-month mission, as well as loss of muscle mass. If they don’t eat and exercise properly, it can be difficult to move on return and can even lead to them easily breaking bones.
Providing their bodes with vitamins and calcium is vital and lots of planning goes into it. In fact, on the ISS, each food package has a barcode that astronauts have to scan so mission control can keep track of what they’re eating.
Also, because gravity has an effect on how fluids behave in our bodies, it can have an impact on how astronauts taste and smell, so space food usually tastes very strong. Expect spicy flavours like peppers and chilli if you ever get invited for dinner on the ISS.
The first man to eat in space was the first man in space himself – Soviet cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin in 1961. While aboard Vostok 1, he chowed down on beef and liver paste, squeezing it into his mouth from an aluminium tube the way we’d squeeze toothpaste. Things have changed a lot since then, with the meals astronauts eat now looking and smelling a lot like what we would enjoy here. They even have cutlery, chairs and tables. They have fresh fruit and vegetables, kept in the ISS’ fridge. Then there’s meat and dairy, which get a dose of ionising radiation before being packaged to give them a longer shelf life and kill bacteria. Low-moisture foods also stop the spread of bacteria, with things such as nuts, biscuits and chocolate being prepackaged as snacks. Salt and pepper is available in
Did you know? Astronauts dispose of their food waste in a special trash compactor
liquid form, because the particles could clog up the ventilation system.
There are also meals that have had water taken out of them and re-applied on the ISS to make them edible, much like some of the freeze-dried noodle and pasta snacks you might have in your own lunchbox.
From vegetables and fruit to delicious desserts, there are over 100 items on the space station’s menu to help the crew get the up to 3,300 calories which they need each day to perform their duties. They have three regular mealtimes every day, with snacks provided for when they get an attack of the space munchies.