Now in space you can enjoy ice cream. This treat is in a special package, stored for years and does not melt at room temperature. True, only cosmonauts can eat them.
To understand the richness of today's astronaut diet, it is worth remembering what food was at the beginning of space explorations.
Early Space Menu
The first space flights were an impressive breakthrough. No one then knew how weightlessness affects people. NASA did not understand whether digestion could function without gravity and what food would be safe for astronauts. On the ISS, the products do not fall to the floor, and the crumbs will plow inside the electrical devices.
American astronaut Joe Glenn became the first person to taste apple sauce in space. This happened in 1962 on the device Druzhba-7. But this is not a nutritional product, so crew members quickly lost weight. So NASA had to tackle the problem.
Making pizza on board ISS
That is, traditional dishes were taken and dehydrated, frozen and processed to ensure a long shelf life. In early missions, refrigerators took too much energy, so you had to store food at room temperature. NASA had to contract with Whirlpool Corporation to figure out how to save ice cream under these conditions. When this product melts, the internal air is released. Technologists managed to remove water from ice cream without melting it. To do this, it is cooled to -15 ° C and include a vacuum pump that evaporates the ice, but leaves the ice cream cold.
Neapolitan Famine
Although this ice cream was invented long ago, it never left the planet. The media reported that the product was added to the menu of Apollo 7. But the last surviving member of the crew denied his presence on board. Therefore, it actually exists, but it has not been in space.
What do astronauts eat? Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin managed to eat bacon and fruit juice on the moon. But since then the menu has expanded considerably. More recently, shrimp cocktails, tortillas, and even pizza!
