thedrifter
05-30-07, 07:47 AM
Noshed in Space
Food worth writing home to Earth about.
BY TAYLOR DINERMAN
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Space food does not have a very good reputation. Memories of Mercury astronauts in the early 1960s eating out of tubes are still vivid. Not to mention all the jokes about Tang. The Gemini program provided some improvement, but the Apollo astronauts were the first Americans to enjoy hot food--and, more important, hot coffee--in space. Yet as Buzz Aldrin, who flew on both the last Gemini flight and on the historic Apollo 11 mission, said in a phone interview: "As long as one got a relatively full stomach, I don't remember that the taste made all that much difference."
Today, the food choices on the space shuttle and the International Space Station are nutritionally balanced but normally fairly mundane. A vast improvement over the Mercury days, in short, but still nothing to write home to Earth about. Yet there have already been some notable culinary breakthroughs.
As he was preparing for his trip to the International Space Station this April, Charles Simonyi, who paid $20 million for the privilege, had hoped that his friend Martha Stewart would be able to cook a gourmet meal that he could share with his fellow space travelers. Unfortunately, there was no time to prepare anything and get it certified by the space station's partners, a process that can take years. So, Ms. Stewart says, "I designed a special menu for Charles and the crew which was prepared by the consulting and training center of the famous chef Alain Ducasse."
Ms. Stewart made selections from the Special Events entrees and desserts that already had been developed and packaged for astronauts and cosmonauts by Mr. Ducasse's center in Argenteuil, France, and been inspected and approved by the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatial. The food was delivered to the International Space Station on the same Russian Soyuz flight that brought Mr. Simonyi to the station.
The meal was shared by the six people onboard the station on April 12, the anniversary of the first human trip into orbit--made by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. The crew gathered in the Russian Service module, which is the social center of the complex. And as the diners orbited the Earth at 17,000 miles an hour, they spent a hour or more enjoying the duck pâté and roast quail, as well as rice pudding and apple fondant for dessert. Mr. Simonyi described it as a "festive" occasion.
The food came in a series of cans, some heated up by the electric gadgets--described by Mr. Simonyi as being like "toasters"--that are built into the Russian module's folding table. The gourmet dishes were supplemented by items from the crew's bonus food containers, including canned octopus provided by the American astronaut Mike Lopez Alegria.
Mr. Ducasse had been asked by the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatial to pick up where the Hotel School of Souillac had left off. In the 1990s, this small school in southern France had developed a few high-quality gourmet dishes for French space travelers to carry to Russia's Mir space station. Mr. Ducasse and his team designed a series of Special Event Meals for the crews of the International Space Station.
The first of these was hosted onboard the space station on Dec. 1, 2006, by the German Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut. It consisted of red tuna with Menton lemon confit and ragout of veal, and semolina cake with dried apricots for dessert. When the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory module is attached later this year or in early 2008, Mr. Ducasse expects to fly holiday meals to the space station on a regular basis.
This was not the first space meal prepared by a celebrity chef, however. Last July, America's space shuttle Discovery delivered one to the space station put together by TV chef Emeril Lagasse. It included Mardi Gras Jambalaya, Kicked Up Mashed Potatoes, green beans, and rice pudding and fruit for dessert. Last December, Rachel Ray's Spicy Thai Chicken, Vegetable Curry-in-a-Hurry and Swedish Meatballs With Noodles were enjoyed by the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Shuttle crews have noticed that during the second week or so of their mission they often begin to get mildly congested and lose some of their sense of smell and taste; spicier foods become more attractive than more subtly flavored ones. But astronauts who spend months in orbit find the congestion does not last and their taste buds return to normal.
Over time NASA and its international partners on the space station will have to find new types of tasty food to bolster morale and keep the crews healthy. And as space tourism expands, the greater the demands will be for food that is not simply "fuel."
Already, the Russians have used their Lada growth chamber in the Service Module to produce peas, peppers, mizuna (a salad green), wheat and rice. Being able to regularly eat fresh fruits and vegetables grown in space will be the next leap forward.
It can be safely predicted that the story of space food will closely follow the story of human expansion into the solar system. And who knows? In the distant future, some space-grown delicacies may find markets down here on Earth, or it may even be profitable to grow major crops, such as corn or rice, using the unlimited sunlight and plentiful water to be found off our planet.
Space food may someday become a part of everyone's diet.
Ellie
Food worth writing home to Earth about.
BY TAYLOR DINERMAN
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
Space food does not have a very good reputation. Memories of Mercury astronauts in the early 1960s eating out of tubes are still vivid. Not to mention all the jokes about Tang. The Gemini program provided some improvement, but the Apollo astronauts were the first Americans to enjoy hot food--and, more important, hot coffee--in space. Yet as Buzz Aldrin, who flew on both the last Gemini flight and on the historic Apollo 11 mission, said in a phone interview: "As long as one got a relatively full stomach, I don't remember that the taste made all that much difference."
Today, the food choices on the space shuttle and the International Space Station are nutritionally balanced but normally fairly mundane. A vast improvement over the Mercury days, in short, but still nothing to write home to Earth about. Yet there have already been some notable culinary breakthroughs.
As he was preparing for his trip to the International Space Station this April, Charles Simonyi, who paid $20 million for the privilege, had hoped that his friend Martha Stewart would be able to cook a gourmet meal that he could share with his fellow space travelers. Unfortunately, there was no time to prepare anything and get it certified by the space station's partners, a process that can take years. So, Ms. Stewart says, "I designed a special menu for Charles and the crew which was prepared by the consulting and training center of the famous chef Alain Ducasse."
Ms. Stewart made selections from the Special Events entrees and desserts that already had been developed and packaged for astronauts and cosmonauts by Mr. Ducasse's center in Argenteuil, France, and been inspected and approved by the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatial. The food was delivered to the International Space Station on the same Russian Soyuz flight that brought Mr. Simonyi to the station.
The meal was shared by the six people onboard the station on April 12, the anniversary of the first human trip into orbit--made by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. The crew gathered in the Russian Service module, which is the social center of the complex. And as the diners orbited the Earth at 17,000 miles an hour, they spent a hour or more enjoying the duck pâté and roast quail, as well as rice pudding and apple fondant for dessert. Mr. Simonyi described it as a "festive" occasion.
The food came in a series of cans, some heated up by the electric gadgets--described by Mr. Simonyi as being like "toasters"--that are built into the Russian module's folding table. The gourmet dishes were supplemented by items from the crew's bonus food containers, including canned octopus provided by the American astronaut Mike Lopez Alegria.
Mr. Ducasse had been asked by the European Space Agency and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatial to pick up where the Hotel School of Souillac had left off. In the 1990s, this small school in southern France had developed a few high-quality gourmet dishes for French space travelers to carry to Russia's Mir space station. Mr. Ducasse and his team designed a series of Special Event Meals for the crews of the International Space Station.
The first of these was hosted onboard the space station on Dec. 1, 2006, by the German Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut. It consisted of red tuna with Menton lemon confit and ragout of veal, and semolina cake with dried apricots for dessert. When the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory module is attached later this year or in early 2008, Mr. Ducasse expects to fly holiday meals to the space station on a regular basis.
This was not the first space meal prepared by a celebrity chef, however. Last July, America's space shuttle Discovery delivered one to the space station put together by TV chef Emeril Lagasse. It included Mardi Gras Jambalaya, Kicked Up Mashed Potatoes, green beans, and rice pudding and fruit for dessert. Last December, Rachel Ray's Spicy Thai Chicken, Vegetable Curry-in-a-Hurry and Swedish Meatballs With Noodles were enjoyed by the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Shuttle crews have noticed that during the second week or so of their mission they often begin to get mildly congested and lose some of their sense of smell and taste; spicier foods become more attractive than more subtly flavored ones. But astronauts who spend months in orbit find the congestion does not last and their taste buds return to normal.
Over time NASA and its international partners on the space station will have to find new types of tasty food to bolster morale and keep the crews healthy. And as space tourism expands, the greater the demands will be for food that is not simply "fuel."
Already, the Russians have used their Lada growth chamber in the Service Module to produce peas, peppers, mizuna (a salad green), wheat and rice. Being able to regularly eat fresh fruits and vegetables grown in space will be the next leap forward.
It can be safely predicted that the story of space food will closely follow the story of human expansion into the solar system. And who knows? In the distant future, some space-grown delicacies may find markets down here on Earth, or it may even be profitable to grow major crops, such as corn or rice, using the unlimited sunlight and plentiful water to be found off our planet.
Space food may someday become a part of everyone's diet.
Ellie