The tubes — the last century. How to make food for astronauts
Cosmonautics Day Aify talks about how is the food served to the table on orbit.
Food for astronauts must be useful, useable and easy. The latest technology of food processing has allowed to achieve all these conditions and make the menu of the astronauts varied.
It is believed that space food is certainly in the tubes. But this is the last century.
The latest technologies have changed the view of space, and their menu has expanded greatly. Astronauts in orbit have to feed 4 times a day, consume more than 3000 Kcal, and their diet should be balanced and include only healthy foods, rich in vitamins, minerals, and containing no fragrances and dyes.
Yuri Gagarin flew into orbit with only 9 tubes. Now astronauts can choose from over 500 dishes. And menus for each will be tailored to his needs and tastes.
There are even jars of caviar, but special eggs which are as if soldered to each other and do not scatter in microgravity
Packaging
Space tubes is now, only make them out of aluminum, it was replaced by a multilayered laminate. But the main container for space meals is cans and packages from polymeric materials.
Drinks
For drinks on ships invented special glasses, from which the liquid should be sucked. If you try to pour the tea in a regular Cup — he will swim away from you through the air.
Methods for the preparation of
Freeze-drying. First in special shops cook borscht, cabbage soup, to prepare the second dishes. Important requirement — sterility. After cooking sublimate: and remove moisture under vacuum conditions.
This method removes up to 95% of the fluid, but it retains the nutrients, vitamins, even the natural smell, taste and color of the products. Besides freeze-dried products can be stored up to 5 years. The resulting dish is Packed in a special plastic bag. On Board the ship, the astronauts will add in this package the right amount of water.
In this way can almost everything: vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meat, fish, soups and porridges
Thermal sterilization. Products partially removed from the water, and they are heated to a certain temperature for each product is their own. And Packed in sealed containers.
Sterilization by irradiation. Mainly because processed meats. The use of triple exposure in rays from cobalt-60 source was allowed to keep foods fresh for several years.
Bread
The main rule of space food — no crumbs. In zero gravity, they can fly through the ship and enter the lungs of astronauts. Therefore, the dining tables in the space stations have “crossosomataceae”. And baked goods are made with small, specially packaged bread in one bite.
Food preparation on a ship
Freeze-dried foods astronauts fill with water. Each package sublimated dish is manual, the astronaut opens the package, notching in a special line that adds the right amount of water, heated to the desired temperature (usually for ready meals used warm water), shakes — and dinner is ready.