A typical meal in space in the eighties. Photo credit: NASA (UC Science Today) When most of us think of space food, what comes to mind are probably those silver packets of freeze-dried ice cream you find in science center gift shops. Surprisingly, freeze-dried ice cream only made it to space once, on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968 [1]. Although at one time this may have resembled what astronauts actually ate in space, the development of space food has advanced light years since then (pun intended).
Food cubes and tubes from early Project Mercury (1953-63). Photo credit: NASA (nasa.gov) Space flights initially lasted mere minutes and were not long enough to necessitate consumption of a meal. However, as flight duration began to increase, scientists began to develop snacks for in-flight consumption. During NASA’s Project Mercury (1958-63), astronauts began to test what the physiology of eating, or how chewing, drinking, ...
