Space food Ideas, Tips & Guides

NASA will soon be growing chillies on the International Space Station. Jacob Torres joins Emma the Space Gardener to talk New Mexico chiles in space, his Space Chile Challenge citizen science project, and more!

Header image: Window View of Astronaut Holding DoubleTree Cookie. Image credit: Hilton

Header image by Md Asif from Pixabay

Last week, I showed you the Turkish astrobotany investigations flying on the Axiom 3 Private Space Mission, which launched to the International Space Mission yesterday. The plant experiments are part of a larger research program for the mission, much of which focuses on human biology and medical research. 

As NASA plans missions to the Moon and Mars, a key factor is figuring out how to feed crew members during their weeks, months, and even years in space.

Header image: An artist’s depiction of a fictional Mars colony, with solar arrays and underground greenhouses. Image credit: NASA

I imagine the Apollo 11 astronauts had plenty to do while they were hurtling towards the Moon, but from a bystander’s perspective it was probably pretty dull stuff. Still, it’s Day 3 of the mission, so let’s have a look at what they’ve got stashed away in their space age picnic basket.

In the Hi-Seas habitat in Hawaii, analog astronauts take part in simulated space missions. Ben Greaves joins Emma the Space Gardener to talk about the isolation, the dehydrated diet, and his experiment growing microgreens in space-age hydrogel.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners off World! On 15 February, the NG-13 cargo ship blasted off from NASA Wallops on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). It arrived on 18 February, where NASA astronaut Drew Morgan caught it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

This week, Gardeners Off World is blasting off to celebrate an off-world Thanksgiving. Let’s rehydrate some turkey!

In 2004, ESA challenged French chefs to come up with gourmet recipes for space travellers on Mars and other planets. They were limited by what could feasibly be grown on Mars, with extra ingredients (such as extra vegetables, herbs, oil, butter, seasonings and sugar) shipped from Earth.

Join Emma the Space Gardener in the Gardeners of the Galaxy time machine to learn about the time that NASA encouraged schoolchildren all over the world to grow killer mutant space tomatoes. That can’t be right, can it?

It’s time for Gardeners off World, the only publication aimed at would-be interplanetary gardeners – or as I like to call it, A Giant Leap for Growkind

Welcome to Gardeners Off World! The big news for Seed Guardians of the Galaxy this week is that the apple pips Tim Peake took to space during his Principia mission to the International Space Station (ISS) have been nurtured into saplings that have just been assigned their forever homes.

In this latest episode, Emma the Space Gardener talks with Dr Christina Johnson, who works with microgreens at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. She explains the benefits and challenges of growing microgreens in orbit, and what it’s going to take to get them onto astronaut menus.

On Saturday, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer shared a taste of home with the rest of the crew of the International Space Station (ISS). Maurer is from Saarland, a forested, southwestern German state. Saarland is named after the Saar River, a tributary of the Moselle, and Saarland is considered part of the greater Moselle wine region.

The latest Cargo Dragon resupply mission docked with the ISS on Saturday, and the crew have been unpacking essential supplies. Their fresh food treats this time are Gala apples, navel oranges, cherry tomatoes, onions, lemons, mini peppers and ripe avocados.

Today is International Coffee Day, but what about those intrepid humans who have gone beyond Earth?

Hello and welcome to Meals on Mars, your weekly imaginarium devoted to the future of food on Earth and beyond!

Today (May 20th) is Pick Strawberries Day in America. It’s a bit early in the UK – the strawberry season is only just beginning, ramping up to be ready for Wimbledon in June.

I read an anecdote (and it bothers me now that I can’t remember where) about a crew on the ISS who looked at the food supplies on board. They called down to Mission Control and said, “We have lots of packets of Grits in stock, but no one likes them. Can we just toss them out?”

Hopefully, one of the good things to come out of our current situation will be a greater reverence for our food, and a greater understanding of where it comes from. After the initial surges subsided, it was possible once again to buy pasta, UHT milk and even toilet roll. But since then there have been other shortages. Yeast, as everyone tries their hand at making bread at home. Icing sugar*, caster sugar, brown sugar as people brush up on their baking skills generally. And, of course, flour. We are told that this is all due to a rise in demand. That there is plenty of flour, but millers just can’t put any more of it in small bags. Either because they don’t have the capacity, or because they don’t have enough bags.

Header image: The tiny floating duckweed plant is uniquely suited to meet the nutritional needs of astronauts. Dr. Jared J. Stewart, CC BY-ND

Weathering the worst of an Antarctic winter, a shipping container may hold the key to feeding astronauts in space. The EDEN ISS greenhouse was shipped to the German Neumayer Station III Antarctic station in 2017. It sits on extendable stilts to cope with the snow accumulating underneath. On a clear day, the views are breathtaking. At other times, the crew need a rope guideline to find their way from the greenhouse to the station. During the worst blizzards, EDEN ISS is fully monitored and operated from the control centre at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Germany.

In 2021, One Giant Leap Australia sent golden wattle seeds into space, as part of a nationwide STEM project to explore “What’ll Happen to the Wattle??!”. In this episode, Emma the Space Gardener talks to Jackie Carpenter about how the seeds got to space, and then back home again, and what’s next for the space-flown wattle seeds.

Header image: This lettuce produces a bone-stimulating hormone that could help stave off bone loss in space and on Earth. Image credit: Kevin Yates

Food for the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) is usually delivered well in advance. They get a few fresh treats whenever a cargo ship arrives (or if they grow their own!), but they’re a bit too far away to order take out.

In November 2021, Heinz announced to the world that they had successfully created a high-quality ketchup made from tomatoes grown in Martian conditions.

NBC News has made a lovely short video about NASA’s Plant Processing Lab at the Kennedy Space Center. Joshua Johnson reports on how NASA scientists are researching how to grow plants in space to make long-term space travel sustainable, and how research partners at the University of Florida are growing plants in soil from the Moon. 

Today is World Nutella Day, which seems like an excellent opportunity to explore the time that a spoonful of chocolate hazelnut spread nearly caused an interplanetary incident.

Papa Johns is launching the world’s first-space-inspired pizza – a giant leap for pizza lovers everywhere.

In episode 35, Emma the Space Gardener explores why bioregenerative life support systems are things we only see in the movies, and how far NASA has come in its quest to build a space salad machine.

A private 10-day mission to the International Space Station is due to launch in March 2022. SpaceX Axiom Space-1 (AX-1) will carry four private astronauts, including Eytan Stibbe, who will become the second Israeli in space. (The first Israeli in space, Ilan Ramon, sadly died in the Columbia disaster).

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she talks to Dr Wieger Wamelink about how he became a space farmer, his experiments growing plants on Moon and Mars soil simulants, the importance of developing off-world ecosystems, and whether we can bring pet chickens to Mars!

By Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology and Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology

Header image: Growing food in space will rely on innovative agricultural technologies. (NASA)