NASA Recruits Chef to Design Gourmet Astronaut Meals

Fanghawk

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NASA Recruits Chef to Design Gourmet Astronaut Meals

NASA will launch 2000 meals of lobster and duck into space, much to the excitement of orbiting staff.

The Christmas holidays are coming up, and for many that means a journey home to eat enormous dinners with friends and family. While you're chowing down however, remember that not everybody is fortunate enough to have access to fine dining, especially astronauts orbiting the planet. Most space travelers can tell you that <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_food>astronaut food is dehydrated, freeze-dried, and preserved beyond recognition because fresh food doesn't keep in the blackness of space. That can be rather discouraging during a prolonged mission, so NASA will address the problem with Monégasque chef Alain Ducasse, who is preparing 2000 gourmet astro-meals for special occasions.

According to French newspaper Le Parisien, Ducasse has designed several fine-dining packages for astronauts to enjoy, including lobster, organic quinoa with seaweed, duck confit, and even chocolate cake. The full menu consists of 25 dishes requested by the astronauts, who will consume the meals during training and an upcoming June space mission. The 2000 meals will be packed into sterilized aluminum boxes and launched into space next year, presumably in what will be the most treasured compartment of the entire shuttle.

These meals should provide an immeasurable boost to astronaut morale. After all, outside of their highly qualified resumes, astronauts are still human beings <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122109-ISS-Commander-Records-Song-With-Barenaked-Ladies-From-Space>who love breaking up the monotony of living where you work. Let's just hope the astronauts are tidy eaters; nobody wants to hear about a space disaster caused by flying remnants of cake and lobster.

Source: Le Parisien, via <a href=http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Food/News/2013/12/11/NASA-astronauts-in-for-finedining-fare-in-space.aspx>The Star

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Kieve

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Fanghawk said:
The 2000 meals will be packed into sterilized aluminum boxes and launched into space next year, presumably in what will be the most treasured compartment of the entire shuttle.
Did I miss something? I thought the shuttle program had been decommissioned in 2011.
From Wikipedia said:
The final flight of the Space Shuttle program was STS-135 on July 8, 2011.
ref [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_program]
Nevertheless, while I'd prefer my tax dollars went somewhere a little more constructive, I won't begrudge astronauts their holiday cuisine. After all, there's not much further from home you can get than low orbit...

EDIT: On a personal note Fanghawk, I love the avatar. UT99 brings back many happy (and bloody) memories.
 

Psychobabble

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I'm really not sure that rich meals and weightlessness should ever be combined. Why? Because in space no one wants to have to swim around in your accidental explosive diarrhea.
 

Thaluikhain

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This is the most exciting thing NASA has done in ages.

Christ, that's depressing.
 

MrFalconfly

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Kieve said:
Fanghawk said:
The 2000 meals will be packed into sterilized aluminum boxes and launched into space next year, presumably in what will be the most treasured compartment of the entire shuttle.
Did I miss something? I thought the shuttle program had been decommissioned in 2011.
From Wikipedia said:
The final flight of the Space Shuttle program was STS-135 on July 8, 2011.
ref [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_program]
Nevertheless, while I'd prefer my tax dollars went somewhere a little more constructive, I won't begrudge astronauts their holiday cuisine. After all, there's not much further from home you can get than low orbit...

EDIT: On a personal note Fanghawk, I love the avatar. UT99 brings back many happy (and bloody) memories.
It's not like they use a lot of your tax money.

Take a look at the US expenditure. NASA is barely a blip when compared to all the other projects the US government has going.
 

Thaluikhain

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MrFalconfly said:
It's not like they use a lot of your tax money.

Take a look at the US expenditure. NASA is barely a blip when compared to all the other projects the US government has going.
Speaking of money, I wonder if they are doing this now because they can't afford their own space vehicles, but need to be doing something.
 

MrFalconfly

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thaluikhain said:
MrFalconfly said:
It's not like they use a lot of your tax money.

Take a look at the US expenditure. NASA is barely a blip when compared to all the other projects the US government has going.
Speaking of money, I wonder if they are doing this now because they can't afford their own space vehicles, but need to be doing something.
Presumably.

The state of NASA these days is miserable. It's only a shadow of what it used to be (the moon landings inspired me to become an engineer), and I find that it's sad that whenever NASA does something amazing on their shoestring budget people will still come out of the woodwork saying that NASA is a waste of money.

Well. At least NuSTAR seems to promise some amazing data.
 

Thaluikhain

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MrFalconfly said:
and I find that it's sad that whenever NASA does something amazing on their shoestring budget people will still come out of the woodwork saying that NASA is a waste of money.
Actually, I sorta think it is, at the moment. Give it the funds to function properly, keep it ticking over not doing much of anything is pointless.
 

MrFalconfly

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thaluikhain said:
MrFalconfly said:
and I find that it's sad that whenever NASA does something amazing on their shoestring budget people will still come out of the woodwork saying that NASA is a waste of money.
Actually, I sorta think it is, at the moment. Give it the funds to function properly, keep it ticking over not doing much of anything is pointless.
Well. At least we still have ESA, ESO and CSA for amazing new knowledge in the field of astronomy.
 

Kieve

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thaluikhain said:
MrFalconfly said:
It's not like they use a lot of your tax money.

Take a look at the US expenditure. NASA is barely a blip when compared to all the other projects the US government has going.
Speaking of money, I wonder if they are doing this now because they can't afford their own space vehicles, but need to be doing something.
That's more what I meant, actually. I would love to see NASA get more funding, and I really wish they were a driving force in the whole "colonize Mars" thing, but instead they're hiring gourmet chefs and outsourcing actual space-travel...