How space food works
Most dishes are dehydrated: water is removed to reduce weight and extend shelf life. Before eating, hot water is added to the package through a special fitting, and the dish returns to its usual form.
Take out and secure the package. Anything not secured will float away. The tray is attached to the table or your thigh.
Add water through the fitting. The amount must be measured precisely, or the result will be too thick or too thin.
Wait and knead the package. Usually for a few minutes, so the food absorbs the water evenly.
Eat straight from the package. A spoon works: the food is thick enough to stay on it by sticking to it.
The last step surprises people most. In weightlessness, a spoon is not useless: thick food stays on it, like a spread. Problems begin with liquids and loose particles, so drinks are consumed through a straw from sealed packages.
Salt and pepper on the station are liquid. Ordinary crystals would scatter around the compartment, so they are dissolved and squeezed out drop by drop. Most seasonings work the same way: anything possible is turned into a paste or liquid.
Why you crave spicy food
Astronauts eat paste from tubes.
That was true on early flights, when little was known about the danger of crumbs. Today, the diet is based on dehydrated, prepared dishes in packages, and tubes have almost fallen out of use.
There is another effect: taste becomes duller. In weightlessness, fluid shifts toward the head, the nasal lining swells, and the sensation resembles mild congestion during a cold. Food tastes bland.
That is why spicy sauces are used up fastest on the station, and menus try to include bold flavors. This is not a whim but a way to preserve appetite: when people lose interest in food, they start eating too little, and that becomes a matter of performance.
There are a few fresh greens on the station, grown in small units. The amounts are symbolic and do not replace the diet, but they provide something a package cannot: flavor and something to do.
Finish reading in the Miqo app
1 more minute, then a quiz at the end. Find it under “Space → Astronauts”
Point your phone camera here to open the App Store or Google Play.
Sources
- The diet on orbital stations is based on dehydrated, prepared dishes
- salt and pepper are used in liquid form, and dulled taste is linked to fluid redistribution in weightlessness