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WASHINGTON - When space shuttle Commander Mark Polansky sits down to dinner during the upcoming shuttle mission, he won't have to squeeze his entree from a tube.
He'll dine on shrimp cocktail, meatloaf and creamed spinach, washed down with lemonade. His colleague Christer Fuglesang, who will become the first Swede in space if the space shuttle Discovery launches on Thursday (Fri NZT) as planned, will enjoy turkey tetrazzini and cherry-blueberry cobbler.
Instant Tang and freeze-dried ice cream aren't the only menu items in orbit anymore. Astronauts dine on seafood gumbo, chicken fajitas and other tasty items that would be welcome on an ordinary American dinner table.
"What we've progressed to is very similar to food that you and I eat at home," said Michele Perchonok, who oversees Nasa's food program.
When preparing food for the astronauts, Perchonok and her fellow space chefs must keep the quirks of a zero-gravity environment in mind. Astronauts eat tortillas rather than bread because bread crumbs could interfere with sensitive onboard equipment. Salt and pepper come in liquid form for the same reason.
Scientists didn't know if swallowing was possible in a zero-gravity environment when John Glenn ate the first US outer-space meal - applesauce, from an aluminum toothpaste tube - in May 1962.
Other early astronauts choked down gelatin-covered cubes and sucked reconstituted "food powders" through straws.
Astronauts John Young and Virgil "Gus" Grissom smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard their five-hour flight in 1965.
Space cravings
By 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were able to enjoy hot dogs, bacon squares and canned peaches when they landed on the moon.
Culinary offerings improved in the orbiting space station Skylab in the early 1970s, which was roomy enough to include a refrigerator and a freezer.
There's no freezer or refrigerator on the space shuttle, so astronauts eat their vegetable quiche and barbecue beef brisket from "thermostabilized" pouches, similar to the "meals ready to eat" created for the US military.
Foods like trail mix, cookies and dried fruit don't require any special packaging.
Many astronauts find they have an increased craving for spicy foods in space. Bodily fluids that gravitate toward the feet on Earth shift to the head in the zero-gravity environment, leading to congestion that can dull the taste buds, Perchonok said.
Fresh fruits and vegetables grown in space could become a staple of space menus in the future, especially on long-haul flights to the moon or Mars.
Over the past decade, astronauts and their Russian counterparts have grown wheat, radishes, pea plants and several types of leafy greens, said Gail Bingham, chief scientist at Utah State University's space dynamics laboratory.
Plants don't grow easily in space. Without gravity, roots can rot when water doesn't drain from the soil, and without wind, they can suffocate when stagnant air doesn't circulate. Scientists say the square footage plants require may be better used to store prepared foods.
But living plants provide an important psychological lift to astronauts far from home, they say.
"Six months without a salad, most people would say, 'I'm missing a piece of my life that I don't want to miss,"' Bingham said.
- REUTERS
