How do astronauts eat when things hang on?

The astronauts' lives have long been curious for many people on the ground. Many questions are raised, in which the top question is how to eat in a zero gravity environment?

Food for astronauts: diverse but without water

Suppose you are preparing for a camp for longer than a week, you definitely have to bring lots of food and essential equipment. Food must be carefully preserved with long-term requirements.

Basically, astronauts are the same when entering space. They have to prepare a variety of foods with some types that can be eaten normally like chocolate cake or fruit. Others need to remove water to limit rancidity such as pasta, cheese or pasta.

Living away from the ground does not necessarily mean austerity. The menu of the astronaut is diverse with many choices such as fruits, nuts, butter, chicken, beef, seafood, candy . Even drinks are not as many as coffee, tea, water orange, lemon juice .

Astronaut with hamburger - (Photo: yummy.co.ke).

Because there is no refrigerator, food in the space must be preserved and prepared carefully to avoid damage, especially when food is needed during long-term tasks.

Spices - like tomato sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, not missing on the space station. Salt and pepper are kept in liquid form, because they cannot be eaten or eaten on food. Moreover, salt and pepper can block air holes, stain the device or even stick to astronauts' eyes, mouth, nose, causing danger.

Astronauts eat 3 meals a day. Nutrition experts make sure their food is rich in vitamins and minerals. The amount of calories provided by food depends on each person. For example, small women need about 1,900 calories a day, while men need 3,200 calories.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield shared some eating problems on the International Space Station - (Source: Youtube).

How is "cooking" in the air?

On Earth, gravity helps people in so many everyday tasks that we sometimes don't realize. For example, in cooking.

We can prepare tools, materials and put them on the table by gravity. Mixing food in a bowl, pouring liquid from one object to another, placing dirty dishes in the sink or putting leftovers in the trash, all thanks to gravity.

Therefore, one of the first problems of astronauts is how to handle when everything is floating.

Two items that are indispensable when they "cook" are plastic bags and duct tape (the type used for plumbing). To cut raw materials, astronauts use plastic bags that are fixed as boards. After cutting, use tape to fix it temporarily.

One thing that astronauts always have to be careful about is not cutting aluminum bags that contain food that is too deep or tearing as the moisture in the bag will make the tape lose stickiness, and of course make everything fly. all.

As the fruit keeps hovering, how will these two astronauts eat them?- (Photo: Space.com).

The astronaut uses a bag to make a bowl of marinated food, and many extra bags for preparing ingredients. However, sometimes it is difficult to put food in the bag because there is no force to push them away from the hand. At this time, astronauts often have to scrub them so they fall into the bag. Because of that, handling pomegranate materials is a disaster.

Food for astronauts is often separated from water so it can be stored longer. So when they want to eat, they have to add water and cook it in an air convection cooker at a temperature of 70-75 ⁰ C. It usually takes about 20-30 minutes to make up the water and heat a meal.

Astronauts can have a lot of food, but they are hard to eat because in a zero gravity environment, the aroma of food has flown away before the nose can smell. Eating without aroma, it must be hard to feel the taste.

Meanwhile, liquid into astronauts often 'floats' up the upper half of the body. This makes them feel regular stuffy nose.