ISS Uploads High Res Videos of Life in Orbit, Space Cheeseburger

[PatrickJS]

ISS Uploads High Res Videos of Life in Orbit, Space Cheeseburger

On Monday, NASA released the first videos taken on board the International Space Station with its new RED Epic Dragon Camera, which can record video of up to 6k quality.

For the first time ever, people on Earth can see what life is like in orbit in high definition video. In a January resupply, the ISS acquired a RED Epic Dragon Camera, which they have been using to record both experiments and slices of life.

With the past two weeks all the time [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141480-Mount-Spock-Kirk-Crater-Vader-Valley-Are-All-Possibly-Names-on-the-List-for-Plutos-Features], maybe NASA feels it's time to show us something a bit closer to home.

The RED camera is the same used to record the Hobbit trilogy, among other recent media. Smaug isn't impressed.


In one video, astronaut Terry Virts inserts an effervescent antacid tablet into a floating globule of water. In zero gravity, the water forms shifting sphere in space, and it slowly turns opaque with bubbly activity. Some droplets that burst from the sphere orbit it briefly before glomming back on.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded a similar experiment [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123453-This-is-What-Happens-When-You-Wring-a-Washcloth-in-Space] during his tenure on board. What can we say - water in zero-g is pretty amazing.

In the next video, Virts, who was Commander for expedition 43 from March to June, shows us how to satisfy your food cravings on board the station. Taking what looks like a taco shell and stuffing it with freeze-dried ground beef, along with mustard, ketchup, mayo, and any other condiments they have up there, he presents to us the "space cheeseburger."


I can't say the burger looks very appealing. Has anyone here tried astronaut ice cream? Does it really taste like Buzz Aldrin?

Source: NASA [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/red_epic_dragon_camera]

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[FalloutJack]

I can't say the burger looks very appealing. Has anyone here tried astronaut ice cream? Does it really taste like Buzz Aldrin?

I have, and frankly no it does not. It's very dry and artificially flavored, but since Buzz would be 'long pork' flavor, I would say no. It's more 'vaguely like soft-serve ice cream if it were, in fact, hardened and freeze-dried'. Life has been very strange to me. I won this in a sweepstakes as a kid.

But to be more on-topic, the two things you have to remember is that space food is made specifically to be unable to crumble and float everywhere and get into the instruments. When astronauts sneak normal food up into space and grab a bite, the crumbs are a real problem later. So, NASA forbade that one. And as a result, point number two is that after a while...even space food is appetizing because of lack of alternative and the fact that they DID work on flavoring it.

 

[Slycne]

Has anyone here tried astronaut ice cream? Does it really taste like Buzz Aldrin?

I have, and frankly no it does not. It's very dry and artificially flavored.

Interesting aside, freeze-dried ice cream was only every taken to space one time, but its proved to be so popular a novelty and gift shop item that it's still being made.