1. SPACE FOODS
Dulani Shanika Perera
University of Peradeniya
Sri Lanka

2. What is space food??
“Space food is a variety of food products
specially created and Processed for
consumption of astronauts”

3. Characteristics
• Must be nutritional
• Easy to digest and palatable
• Must be light
• Properly sealed
• Quick and easy to prepare and to clean up after
• 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

4. Early space foods
• 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
• Was not enjoyable at all
• Freeze dried foods had to be re-hydrated
which fond an unpleasant task

6. Early Project Mercury food tube and dry
bite-sized snacks with gelatin coating

7. But in later………..
• Squeeze tubes were eliminated
• Bite-sized cubes were coated with gelatin
to reduce crumbling,
• freeze-dried foods were encased in a
special plastic container to make
reconstituting easier
• improved packaging came improved food
quality and menus

8. But now,
space food has come a long way from
freeze dried snacks and tube foods to
warm pouches of savory shrimp cocktail
and apples with black current juice!!

9. Shrimp cocktail

10. Modern space foods

11. Types of space food
• Re- hydratable
• Natural form
• Intermediate moisture
• Beverages
• Thermo sterilized pouch
• Thermo sterilized cans
• Irradiated meat

12. Rehydratable
Beef toast
Spiced cereal Ex:- chicken soup, macaroni, rice , breakfast
cereal

13. Intermediate moisture (IM)
foods
• Produced by restricting the amount of
water available for microbial growth
• water present is chemically bound with the
sugar or salt
Ex:- Dried peaches, pears, apricots dried
beef
Vacuum sealed Apricot

14. Natural foam food (NF)
• They are ready to eat, packaged in flexible
pouches
Ex:- nuts, granola bars, cookies
Granola bar

15. Irradiated (I) food
• Beef steak is the only irradiated product
currently used on Shuttle

16. Condiments
• catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, taco sauce,
and hot pepper sauce
• Packaged in Polyethylene dropper bottles

18. Astronaut menu selection
• Astronauts are given sample of food and
beverages available at flight
• Astronauts select their menu
approximately five months before flight
• Then shuttle dietitians analyze menus and
give recommendations to correct any
nutrient deficiencies based on the
Recommended Dietary allowances

19. How much food they have?
• 3.8 pounds of food, including 1 pound of
packaging, per astronaut for each day
• The astronauts get three meals a day, plus
snacks
• A back-up Safe Haven food system
provides an extra 2,000 calories per day,
per astronaut

20. How they eat
• 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.

22. Safe haven food
• The Safe Haven food system is provided to
sustain crewmembers for 22 days under
emergency operating conditions resulting
from an on-board failure
• The Safe Haven food system will be stored
at ambient temperatures therefore, the
food must be shelf-stable.
• Thermostabilized entrees and fruits,
intermediate moisture foods, and
dehydrated food and beverage are used.

23. EVA food
• EVA means extravehicular activities
• Consisting of food and drink for 8 hours
(500 calories of food and 38 oz. of water
per each EVA activity)

24. Future of space food
• NASA plans to grow fruits and vegetables
on space farms using hydroponic systems
• 3D food printing