Foods they eat while in the Space shuttle

TASTY SPACE FOODS

Imagine going camping for over a week with several of your close friends. You would make sure you have plenty of food and the gear to cook and eat it with. The food would have to be stored properly and nonperishable to avoid spoilage. After finishing your meal, or at the end of your camping trip, you would then stow all your gear and dispose of your trash properly just before the ride home.

Astronauts basically do the same thing when they go to space. Preparation varies with the food type. Some foods can be eaten in their natural form, such as brownies and fruit. Other foods require adding water, such as macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. Of course, an oven is provided in the space shuttle and the space station to heat foods to the proper temperature. There are no refrigerators in space, so space food must be stored and prepared properly to avoid spoilage, especially on longer missions.

Condiments are provided such as ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. Salt and pepper are available but only in a liquid form. This is because astronauts can't sprinkle salt and pepper on their food in space. The salt and pepper would simply float away. There is a danger they could clog air vents, contaminate equipment or get stuck in an astronaut's eyes, mouth or nose.

Astronauts eat three meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nutritionists ensure the food they eat provides them with a balanced supply of vitamins and minerals. Calorie requirements differ for astronauts. For instance, a small woman would require only about 1,900 calories a day, while a large man would require about 3,200 calories. There are also many types of foods an astronaut can choose from such as fruits, nuts, peanut butter, chicken, beef, seafood, candy, brownies, etc... Drinks range from coffee, tea, orange juice, fruit punches and lemonade.

As on Earth, space food comes in packages that must be disposed. Astronauts must throw their packages away in a trash compactor inside the space shuttle when they are done eating. Some packaging actually prevents food from flying away. The food packaging is designed to be flexible, easier to use, as well as maximize space when stowing or disposing food containers.

source: (NASA)

National Aeronautics

& Space Administration

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket

Scheduled to be first launched in mid 2008, is designed to be man-rated. This would be the first American orbital vehicle since the Space Shuttle to receive this designation, in principle allowing the vehicle to transport paying customers to orbit. Plans and a full-scale prototype for the SpaceX Dragon, a manned capsule carrying up to 7 passengers, were announced on March 6, 2006. An early flight of the Falcon 9 is planned to carry the prototype expandable space complex module (based on the formerly NASA-owned Transhab design) constructed by Bigelow Aerospace. Bigelow Aerospace expects such modules to be used for activities like microgravity research, space manufacturing, and space tourism (with modules serving as orbital hotels). To promote private manned launch efforts, Bigelow has offered the $50M America's Space Prize for the first US-based privately funded team to launch a manned reusable spacecraft to orbit on or before

January 10, 2010.
XCOR Aerospace plans to initiate a suborbital commercial spaceflight service with the Lynx rocketplane in 2012. First test flights are planned for 2010.
Excalibur Almaz plans to launch a modernized Almaz space station, for tourism and other uses. It will feature the largest window ever on a spacecraft.

Future plans
Many have speculated on where private spaceflight may go in the near future. One possibility is for paid suborbital tourism on craft like SpaceShipOne. Additionally, suborbital spacecraft have applications for faster intercontinental package delivery and passenger flight.

On-orbit propellant depots
In a presentation given 2005-11-15 to the 52nd Annual Conference of the American Astronautical Society, NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin suggested that establishing an on-orbit propellant depot is, "Exactly the type of enterprise which should be left to industry and to the marketplace." At the Space Technology and Applications International Forum in 2007, Dallas Bienhoff of Boeing made a presentation detailing the benefits of propellant depots

source: wikipedia