Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. This
Speaker 1: is Alison I don't know, like the science editor at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb,
Speaker 1: science writer for how stuff works dot com. Today we're
Speaker 1: talking about eating in space. Yes, and uh, I mean
Speaker 1: I think the most famous form of space cuisine is
Speaker 1: of course space ice cream. You've had space ice cream? Right? No?
Speaker 1: You never had space ice cream? Never? Seven years old.
Speaker 1: I've coveted it many times I walked past it. I
Speaker 1: think they sell it at turner Field and we're of
Speaker 1: course we're based in Atlanta. Um, and I've never had it.
Speaker 1: My husband always dissuades me, like they bring it around
Speaker 1: on the little No. No, there's just just a little
Speaker 1: little cart. That's hells space ice cream. What purports with
Speaker 1: the ice cream in the future where it's the little balls? Right? Oh?
Speaker 1: Maybe I am that's the kind they have get the
Speaker 1: six flags. Oh, that's what I'm confusing it west See.
Speaker 1: I think that's just normal ice cream or it's just
Speaker 1: like made into little frozen balls. Regardless, I have had
Speaker 1: just regular old ice cream, which I very much like.
Speaker 1: Had space ice cream because they not because I've been
Speaker 1: into space obviously, but because they sell at it pretty
Speaker 1: much every like UM Space Museum, gift shop or every
Speaker 1: like you know, Air Force Museum. And my dad was,
Speaker 1: I think it's a big seller. Yeah, it's it's a
Speaker 1: huge seller. That not so great on the taste, like
Speaker 1: I think a lot of cutes I had Neopolitan styrofoam,
Speaker 1: I think because it all kind of tastes like ice cream,
Speaker 1: but also tastes like packing material. Oh that sounds really unpleasant. Yeah, Actually,
Speaker 1: they don't need all that much ice cream in space.
Speaker 1: I heard that Apollo seven was the only mission to
Speaker 1: have actually eaten this um this free drive. Also, it's
Speaker 1: coated in gelatine too, so there's a big discrepancy between
Speaker 1: what seems to be astronaut ice cream and when actually
Speaker 1: is astronaut ice cream. Moreover, they have eaten um real
Speaker 1: ice cream in in space with the addition of a
Speaker 1: refrigerator on the Skylab mission. Wow, so now I feel
Speaker 1: completely deceived. Yeah, well guess that a refrigerator, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so the space ice cream is bogus basically, And okay,
Speaker 1: here's the last thing. While we're talking about sweet stuff,
Speaker 1: in space. This one guy turned forty seven, astronaut by
Speaker 1: the name of I think his name is Daniel Brandonstein.
Speaker 1: Instead of giving him a real birthday cake, which they
Speaker 1: had no I mean, they had no obligation to pack
Speaker 1: up a birthday cake and sent it into space, they
Speaker 1: gave him an inflatable birthday cake, an inflatable, non edible
Speaker 1: birth like. It wasn't even like a chocolate membrane that
Speaker 1: had been filled with air. It was no. No, I
Speaker 1: think the guy just got to pop up birthday cake
Speaker 1: was on fire. No, I don't think they too too
Speaker 1: much lighting on fire in space. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: the sweet stuff. But there's a whole lot of food
Speaker 1: to be eaten in space other than just ice creaming, right,
Speaker 1: It's it's not just guys and gals picking out on
Speaker 1: ice cream and pop tarts? What else? What else? What
Speaker 1: are some of the selections? See there's a Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a whole list, I mean like everything from like there's
Speaker 1: like chicken all King Chicken, Like, hey, we'll beef strokeing
Speaker 1: off a classic. Yeah, there's a shrimp cocktail. Actually, I
Speaker 1: love the shimp cottail. You know, I was talking about
Speaker 1: the shimp cottail because I have this image of the
Speaker 1: astronauts after hours, they're in their party dresses, they're talking
Speaker 1: about space weather, they're dipping the shrimp cottael into the
Speaker 1: cocktail sauce. That's a really good visual, it is. I
Speaker 1: I mentioned this exactly what it's probably happening right now,
Speaker 1: no doubt, no doubt. But yeah, you can get like
Speaker 1: scrambled eggs. You can get various puddings, even butter scotch pudding,
Speaker 1: I think, which yeah, I think you're a little irate
Speaker 1: that butter scotch pudding had been into space and you hadn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like why does butter scotch pudding go into orbit? And
Speaker 1: then beverages, of course we have some of those, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a ton of those. Kind of a coffee drinker, yeah
Speaker 1: and there, yeah, and there's like three different varieties of well,
Speaker 1: two varieties of coffee and then decaffeinated. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: can get like ConA coffee or regular coffee, and you
Speaker 1: can get it in various, uh, various forms of like
Speaker 1: sweetened artificial sweetener or you know, with cream or without cream.
Speaker 1: So it's good that everybody's gonna be wired up there. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: on that same front or oppositely, you can't drink alcohol
Speaker 1: in space. You guys probably need that, But I wonder
Speaker 1: if the Russians have figured out a way to smuggle
Speaker 1: in some alcohol with our fox Bury juice. I wonder, yeah,
Speaker 1: probably not though, or make it they've been up there
Speaker 1: for pretty long stretches at a time if they're doing
Speaker 1: some moonshine on the side. Yeah, And then you can
Speaker 1: actually eat fresh fruits and vegetables if you get to
Speaker 1: them fast enough or in your space flight. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: guess one of the key things to mention. And we'll
Speaker 1: get more into this kind of thing a little later,
Speaker 1: but the whole reason that you have ice cream that's
Speaker 1: dehydrated is because you don't have to This may sound
Speaker 1: kind of obvious, but if you take all the water
Speaker 1: out of out of a product, then you don't have
Speaker 1: to carry the water up with you in some circumstances. Right,
Speaker 1: So it's like you going on a big backpacking trip
Speaker 1: or you know, a space flight as it were. I mean,
Speaker 1: you want to take what you're going to carry, and
Speaker 1: I mean you have to be mindful of that all
Speaker 1: the time. And then the other thing is also spoilage too,
Speaker 1: and then trash. I mean the volume of trash you
Speaker 1: want to um pack in and pack out. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: So choosing what to eat that sounds kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Have you you're married, right, did you guys go through
Speaker 1: that whole wedding cake business where you get to taste
Speaker 1: all the different wedding cakes. Yeah? Yeah, went out. I
Speaker 1: got to sample three or four different cakes, you know,
Speaker 1: and then zero in on the one that we were
Speaker 1: going to go with. Well, astronauts sort of have a
Speaker 1: similar deal in that a few months before there, before
Speaker 1: their mission, they get to go in and taste all
Speaker 1: the different foods available to them, and then they check
Speaker 1: the ones that they want to eat and the ones
Speaker 1: that they rate a six or higher it can wind
Speaker 1: up on the menu. So you know, it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: It could be kind of interesting to taste all these
Speaker 1: very space foods. But say you have this predilection for
Speaker 1: junk food, Well that's sally need to redose, right, Or
Speaker 1: chocolate pudding or scrambled eggs for junk food, No, not
Speaker 1: so much. Well, I guess you put like syrup on
Speaker 1: them maybe, or tabasca. Well we'll get into the tabasca
Speaker 1: sauce a little later anyway. Um, So your your food
Speaker 1: choices still have to fly by a nutritionist. They have
Speaker 1: to approve them because you're nutritional requirements and your clerk
Speaker 1: requirements are a little different. In space, you eat less.
Speaker 1: They have this whole formula that they come up with
Speaker 1: based on your weight, height, and age, and they come
Speaker 1: up with an optimal calorie intake and then things like
Speaker 1: your bone density loss. In space they want to make
Speaker 1: sure you have more calcium unless iron too, and I
Speaker 1: think I don't know why that is there. So it's
Speaker 1: a it's a basically a balance. The whole food selection
Speaker 1: process is a balance between making sure that the that
Speaker 1: the food is going to give the the astronaut the
Speaker 1: nutrients they need, but also making sure that this is
Speaker 1: food that the asternight is going to really genuinely want
Speaker 1: to eat because you're you're not going to have it
Speaker 1: strong and appetite up there, correct, So, and they want
Speaker 1: you to want your food. You don't want it to
Speaker 1: be just drudgery, right. But the thing is is, I mean,
Speaker 1: taste in space is a little different from taste here
Speaker 1: on our lovely planet Earth in that your smell, your
Speaker 1: sense of smell is diminished because the odor really isn't
Speaker 1: wafting towards you, and you think about how smell influences
Speaker 1: your appetite and you're eating now, and that's less of
Speaker 1: a factor in space, you know, You're just I never
Speaker 1: even thought of that, you know. Just yeah, So you
Speaker 1: want your space food to be kind of spicy too,
Speaker 1: because what happens in space is that you want up
Speaker 1: accumulating a lot of fluid in your lungs and you
Speaker 1: wind up being stuffed up all the time. So it's
Speaker 1: basically eating with a cold. So you really can't taste
Speaker 1: your food that well. So you add a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, salt and pepper, but not salt and pepper
Speaker 1: like we think of salt and pepper, because obviously you
Speaker 1: don't want to just sprinkle all these little bits of
Speaker 1: salt and pepper into the air because liquid salt and pepper,
Speaker 1: which kind of sounds delicious, the pepper is is suspended
Speaker 1: in an oil and the salt is in water. So basically,
Speaker 1: if you want to put a little more salt on
Speaker 1: your space fries, you're gonna it's gonna be like plouring
Speaker 1: a contact solution on them. That's great, Yeah, that's really
Speaker 1: appetizing digestion in space what's that like? Well, um, it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty interesting and kind of gross, which kind of
Speaker 1: the digestion in general. But digestion is a is a
Speaker 1: complicated process, even on Earth. Uh, it takes several hours
Speaker 1: for us to digest something, and it depends on multiple steps. Um,
Speaker 1: kind of like you know, the different stations and an
Speaker 1: assembly line or a desembly line. Um, you got. And
Speaker 1: you gotta have gravity because we're you know, we're beings
Speaker 1: that exist in a gravitational environment. So everything is gonna
Speaker 1: be pulled down by gravity. Yeah. And then of course
Speaker 1: we're mostly fluid in our systems are fluid based. You
Speaker 1: need a good fluid balance. Um. You also need the
Speaker 1: back to need your bacteria and the small and test
Speaker 1: since that plays a key role, and also just physical
Speaker 1: activity moving around. Um, and all of those are going
Speaker 1: to be affected to a certain degree by micro gravity. Obviously, Um,
Speaker 1: you know your food is not gonna flow through your
Speaker 1: bowels as well, the bacterial concentrations are gonna be altered.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have decreased muscular activity just uh by nature
Speaker 1: of being you know, in orbit, but it's also gonna
Speaker 1: you're gonna have less moving muscle activity. Moving stuff through
Speaker 1: the gut um, right, that's why they gotta get him
Speaker 1: on the treadmill, Stephen Colbert treadmill, Yes, the Stephen Colbert treat.
Speaker 1: So they say, your first day at your first day
Speaker 1: in orbit is basically going to be constipation and you're
Speaker 1: gonna sounds yeah, well yeah, but uh but yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a You're you're gonna be constipated. You're gonna have a
Speaker 1: pretty upset stomach, and you're you're probably not gonna want
Speaker 1: to eat unless you want to just have some terrifying
Speaker 1: cosmic vomit going on, and uh, generally you don't want that. Uh.
Speaker 1: And uh, also, you're not gonna want to take any
Speaker 1: laxatives in space for I think obvious reasons. That's a
Speaker 1: great tip, thanks for Robert. Yeah, well, we just want
Speaker 1: to touch all the all the bases about badly functions.
Speaker 1: So if Annie Ashtuds are listening that are about to
Speaker 1: go into space, and just remember no laxatives. Yes, don't
Speaker 1: try and smuggle any on. One of the interesting things
Speaker 1: is that if you especially due to like the muscle activity,
Speaker 1: is that if if all this stuff isn't operating right,
Speaker 1: you can actually can end up you can end up
Speaker 1: with some pretty crazy damage to your intestines. Right, it's
Speaker 1: sort of like the blunt trauma associated with UM Yeah,
Speaker 1: like due to like trauma like a car ract or
Speaker 1: or even like surgeries can produce this on Earth, but
Speaker 1: it's actually pretty easy to get in space. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: end up with with intestinal blockages and other nasty situations.
Speaker 1: So you end up you want to keep a close
Speaker 1: eye on your yeah, the state of your g I. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. I actually found an old interview with this
Speaker 1: flight surgeon, um Dr Philips Scarpa. He was from the
Speaker 1: Kennedy Space Center, and he was saying that you in
Speaker 1: space is kind of like eating on Earth if you're
Speaker 1: laying down like the Romans, you know, reclining or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of hard to do. You don't feel
Speaker 1: all that hungry perhaps when you're in that position eating,
Speaker 1: So that that was his kind of equivalent to eating
Speaker 1: in space, which makes sense to me. And the same
Speaker 1: thing with your digestive system processing. It through not all
Speaker 1: that easy to do if you're if you're laying down,
Speaker 1: that's where you're supposed to go for a walk around
Speaker 1: the block, right, yeah, or on the Stephen Colbert that's
Speaker 1: the case, may be a nice little stroll, so they
Speaker 1: really don't have too much preparation de voted to all
Speaker 1: the space food, right, I mean what does the kitchen
Speaker 1: look like? Um? Yeah, I mean basically it's just a
Speaker 1: matter of you're either adding water to something, you're adding
Speaker 1: hot water to something, or you're you know, nuking in
Speaker 1: the microwave. Yeah. And then so you get your little
Speaker 1: tray which kind of reminds me of the airplane trays.
Speaker 1: You know, it has a little containers for all the
Speaker 1: different foods and that's the key thing. You want them
Speaker 1: in the containers so you can eat a variety of
Speaker 1: foods at the same time. Very exciting website points set out.
Speaker 1: But also you don't want your food to float away
Speaker 1: and that that helps with that process. And then you
Speaker 1: get your knife, fork, spoon or your chopsticks as in
Speaker 1: the case of Japan, and you also get some scissors
Speaker 1: to help you tear into those little food packs. Right,
Speaker 1: everything's kind of in a little, uh little baggies. So
Speaker 1: also it would not mind being on dish duty there
Speaker 1: because basically you throw stuff out and then you wipe
Speaker 1: off the utensils with these pre moistened. Yeah, no big deal.
Speaker 1: So what so what does the future of space food
Speaker 1: hold for us? I mean, we we've come up a
Speaker 1: pretty good ways already, because early on we were talking
Speaker 1: like horrible paste and little tubes kind of like kind
Speaker 1: of like if your toothpaste was flavored like beef for salmon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they tested them out on John Glenn, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: and he I think he was not a fan. He
Speaker 1: was the original space cowboy, that guy. Among his many
Speaker 1: other distinctions, I think he was the first American to
Speaker 1: eat space food in orbit an Earth's orbit anyway. Um,
Speaker 1: so apart from John Glenn, who was only up in
Speaker 1: space for a little bit. We're extending our stay, right,
Speaker 1: so that means we're gonna have to pack a lot
Speaker 1: more food, yeah, more food, and food that can can
Speaker 1: set on the shelf a lot longer, right, right. And
Speaker 1: then eventually, of course we're gonna want to live on
Speaker 1: the moon or blast off to various colonies because we're
Speaker 1: gonna want to actually grow food in the in space hydroponically,
Speaker 1: I think, not quite like marijuana, but more like you know, soybeans,
Speaker 1: not quite or not all of it would be marijuana.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. How that will work. Oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of that Growhouse podcast we did.
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, yeah, except in space, right in space. So
Speaker 1: I had to pick out my ideal meal in space?
Speaker 1: Did you I did well? I think I would basically, um,
Speaker 1: recreate my my college diet, which consisted mostly of ramen
Speaker 1: noodles and peanut butter sandwiches, because some of the noodle
Speaker 1: dishes sound pretty good, and uh, you know, we can't
Speaker 1: beat peanut butter only. I would probably have to use
Speaker 1: creche or smooth. Oh um, wonder if they offer both
Speaker 1: in space. I don't yeah, I don't think it would
Speaker 1: matter because the crunchy bits wouldn't float away. Um, I'd
Speaker 1: probably go for smooth, just in case with you know,
Speaker 1: the digestion issue. Right, that's a good choice. And I
Speaker 1: might not be able to use bread. I might have
Speaker 1: to use tortillas because they're pretty popular, because I think
Speaker 1: if I had like a piece of bread, it would
Speaker 1: have to be like coated in gelatin, and that's just
Speaker 1: getting too far from what I'm using. And they are
Speaker 1: all these international folks getting up there into space, too,
Speaker 1: so your selection broadens. You could try some of those
Speaker 1: Japanese noodles or sound delicious better sandwich for those Japanese.
Speaker 1: Or the Indian space curry. Yes, the Indians are working
Speaker 1: on creating a space curry for their their future exploration
Speaker 1: of the Cosmos, which I'm I'm a huge fan of
Speaker 1: Median food, So if that were an option for me,
Speaker 1: and doctors advised me that it was a good idea
Speaker 1: from other digestive system, then I would totally go for
Speaker 1: a space curry. So you want to know what I
Speaker 1: would have? Yeah, tell me Tang No No, I totally
Speaker 1: would have Tang. I would definitely have Tang. Nobody likes Tang.
Speaker 1: I love Tang. I think it's great. Um. Also shrimp cocktail,
Speaker 1: a little mac and cheese, maybe some fresh fruit if
Speaker 1: we're eating in the first few days of the space
Speaker 1: shrimp cocktail, it all goes together. Yeah. And ice cream
Speaker 1: definitely space space cream. Yea space ice cream. Since I've
Speaker 1: never had the real thing, well that's the place to
Speaker 1: try it. It certainly would be so for everything space related, eating,
Speaker 1: space food, going to the bathroom in space. We've got
Speaker 1: you covered on the space front and how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. So check out our site or check out
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