The ISS will bake bread
The German company Bake In Space presented a project on baking bread in microgravity.
The company’s engineers hope to solve the main problem that caused the ban on the production and delivery of bread to the ISS — the formation of a large number of small crumbs that can get into ventilation and electronic systems and cause their malfunction or short circuit. Delivery and system testing on the ISS is scheduled for the first half of 2018. The project was presented at conference of the UK Space Conference in 2017, in detail about it writes the edition of New Scientist.
The only space mission in which the astronauts eat bread in space was Gemini 3 in 1965. The second pilot of the crew John young had smuggled in cabin of spacecraft sandwich.
When he started to take it out of the package, the sandwich began to break down, and crumbs began to scatter in different directions. They could be in different electrical panel inside the cabin and cause a fire ship.
Because of this, the only permitted form of bread on the ISS are tortillas that do not form crumbs.
The company works in partnership with the German centre of aviation and Astronautics, as well as other organizations specializing in the development of food for astronauts. The main problem specialists believe that the creation of such a test and the technology of baking, which would not only create a crumbly bread, but also keep it loose and porous structure. They plan to experiment with different compositions, for example, to use bread yeast.
In addition to the development of the new composition of the test, the company is also trying to create a special oven. It can also help with the structure of bread, but most importantly, she must be extremely energy efficient — consume less than 250 Watts and the furnace body should not be heated above 45 degrees. Now engineers are trying to adapt to these conditions convectional oven. They also consider the use of furnaces with reduced pressure.
This will reduce the temperature and baking will give the bread more crumbly consistency.
The company plans to test different options directly into the ISS in the framework of the mission Horizon of the European Space Agency, whose launch is scheduled for April 2018. In the furnace camera is to be installed, and the whole baking process will be controlled from the Ground.
Other companies are also trying to improve the living conditions of astronauts in orbit via the usual on the Ground of taste sensations. For example, in 2015, the ISS brought the coffee machine and the Cup, specifically designed for use in microgravity.
Gregory Copies