One of the four astronauts who recently lifted off to the International Space Station is French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The food prepared by the European Space Agency (ESA) for him this time looks really good.
On April 23, the SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying four astronauts from three countries to the International Space Station for a six-month mission.
When it comes to space food, people have the impression that products like compressed cookies and highly processed meat. But the European Space Agency in recent years in this area of effort, Pescek this time have a mouthful.
He brought with him not only apple juice in a tube like toothpaste, chocolate pudding, but also lobster, France’s famous hometown dish beef bourguignon, wild mushrooms, almond tart (almond tart) and quinoa (quinoa) and other delicacies.
This is the result of a collaboration between Raphaël Haumont, a physical chemist at the Université Paris-Saclay, and Thierry Marx, the star chef of Michelin, a leading food critic.
They partnered in 2016 to create the French Centre of Culinary Innovation, dedicated to the development of space food.
Pesque jokingly told the New York Times, “The French have high expectations for space [quality of life], I’m a terrible cook, and I’m happy to have someone cooking me good food.”
Of course, Pesch won’t be eating the fancy delicacies designed by Haumont and Marx every day; those dishes will be saved for special days to enjoy.
The New York Times described the food as having undergone many difficulties in design. Space food needs to be shelf life for more than a few months, so it needs to undergo rigorous processing. In addition, the food has to be made with a specific texture to ensure that they do not fall apart and fly up in the weightless environment of space. Most foods have to be heated at 285 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour to bring them to a stable state.
Not only has the European Space Agency put a lot of effort into this, but NASA has not been left behind. They have developed about 200 types of dishes, which they say is “important to maintain astronaut morale.
Ryan Dowdy of NASA’s Space Station Food Management Division said, “In a stressful space mission environment, it’s important to provide them with a good experience that reminds them of the taste of food on Earth.”
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