How To Eat In Space

During their mission around the Moon and back, the Artemis II crew will need to be nourished inside their Orion spacecraft. The food the four astronauts will eat will play a key role in maintaining their health and ensuring they can perform their mission objectives to the best of their abilities. Long before launch, teams at Johnson Space Center prepare so that the crew has everything they need to enjoy their “around-the-Moon-meals.” It starts with Johnson’s Space Food Systems Laboratory, which supports the development and production of space food, menus, packaging, and food-related hardware for all NASA programs, including Artemis. The crew also spends time practicing how they will use equipment aboard Orion to rehydrate and warm their food inside a full-size Orion mockup at Johnson’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. During the mission, the crew will use a potable water dispenser to rehydrate their chosen food and drink packages and a briefcase-style food warmer for warming them up. This is how NASA’s Artemis II astronauts will eat in space. Credit: NASA Writer: Erika Peters Editor: Phil Sexton Producers: Rad Sinyak, Erika Peters Join NASA as we go forward to the Moon and on to Mars -- discover the latest on Earth, the Solar System and beyond with a weekly update in your inbox. Subscribe at: https://www.nasa.gov/subscribe

What is said in the film

Around the Moon meal. Around the Moon meal. What would you eat? Cheese? Oh my gosh.

That's clever. What do you think? That is good. My name is Christina Koch, and I'm Jeremy Hansen. We're crew members on the Artemis two mission flying around the Moon.

And when we fly around the Moon, of course, we're going to be taking some food with us. That's right. This is “How to Eat in Space. ” Here we are in what we call our food lab at NASA Johnson Space Center. We come in here quite often to sample space food.

The neat thing about the food selection is it is so diverse, different entrees that you wouldn't imagine can be rehydrated and actually good in space are completely fair game. And it's pretty awesome. We came in for Artemis to do this. We got about halfway through the first session and we're like, we're not really sure we're going to have time on board to warm this stuff up. We talked a lot about day one.

It's a long day. It's hours before we even leave the launchpad on our way to space. And then when we get to space we have a lot of important events that day. We just did a sim yesterday, where lunch is scheduled. It's a meal, midday meal for all four of us.

And so those will be great moments. I think in our mission to have prepped some food and sit down or float as a, as a crew and just have a joint mea, I think that'd be fun. My name is Xulei Wu, I'm the food systems manager for ISS and Artemis. The food lab at Johnson Space Center. That's where we make and package most of the space food, and also where we will be making all the food for the Artemis missions.

Food is a big part for our crew members. They provide the nutrition, the calorie, macronutrient for crew members, but also boosting crew morale. It’s very important. There is always a lot of steps, very strict steps for us to follow, to making sure the food we provide are consistent and the meet all the food safety and nutritional requirements and most important, also need to taste good. The other strategy is always promote the variety because everybody's food preference can be very different.

Therefore, the more variety we can have, the better to meet the needs of the astronaut group. They bring out these little tiny, tiny samples of each food and you're like, oh my gosh, I thought we were having lunch. And then by the end there's so many space foods and every time you leave, you're like, I am. So I'm so full, I'm in pain. And you just rate.

I'm like, I love this. I don't want to eat it. I'd eat it if you tell me I need it. Because what the food lab does is they take all your preferences, but they're also like good parents and they’re like you need a well balanced diet. Exactly.

They were like, no, you can't have mac and cheese every day. Christina. Sorry. I'm Wyeth McKinley. I'm a flight controller and a crew instructor for Artemis two.

We're here at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at Johnson Space Center. We're inside of the Orion mockup, where we perform crew training for the Artemis two mission. On the Orion vehicle, crew is able to heat up their food using our briefcase style food warmer. The food is held in contact with the central heater plate by these springs so they can warm up and they can have a delicious meal. Much of the food and drink that’s on Orion is rehydratable, and so crew at our potable water dispenser will fill up their food and drink.

And then at that point, you go ahead and pop it in your food warmer. I'm kind of envisioning there's maybe one person putting the stuff in and out, kind of tossing it out to everyone as it's done. Or maybe if we're not scheduled together, you're just on your own over there popping some things in, or maybe just doing your two minutes of free time between things are trying to getting it ready so it has time to warm up. We'll see. Eating together really resonates with me.

I think it's just a human thing to break bread together and to enjoy that. That necessary thing you have to do the thing you should be grateful for. And so doing that as a, as a group, as a family, has always been meaningful for me. It represents togetherness and something a little out of the ordinary. You don't necessarily get to have those meals with everybody in your life, but if you are sharing a meal, especially if you're sharing breakfast, lunch and dinner with a group of people, that means something.

It's like a camping trip.

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