Sometimes it seems to me that @allasyummyfood, @knozaki2015 and @gringalicious have already shown us all the dishes of the world, all the places where it can be tasted, and all the ways how you can cook anything. But, with every new post from them I understand that I was wrong :)

However, there is one place that none of these beautiful girls has yet been able to get... it is space kitchen.

The first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin spent 108 minutes in orbit, without food. Since then much has changed, today people live months in orbit (the record for continuous presence on the ISS is 437 days).

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John Glenn- the first man, who ate in space in 1962. He squeezed the apple puree from a metal tube into his mouth through a hole in the spacesuit.

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The astronaut must be healthy physically and psychologically, and food plays a significant role in this matter. Space food must be not only nutritious and wholesome, and easily digested in conditions of weightlessness, but also meet a number of other important requirements:

• Lightweight. Delivering 1kg of payload to orbit today costs around $ 10,000, so food should be as compact and light as possible.

• Shelf life. Astronauts receive the goods 3-4 times a year, but may arise unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, the delivered food should have the maximum possible shelf life. Today the lower threshold of this indicator is 8 months.

• Safety and health. Spices and crumbs from eating in conditions of weightlessness can fly all over the station and clog filters and equipment. Food should be completely sterile, any organism in orbit could become pathogenic and cause harm to the health of astronauts.

Only two technologies help to solve these tasks: vacuum drying and heat treatment. The humidity of the finished products is only 5%, which significantly reduces the size and weight of food. Treatment of all products with a temperature of at least +100°C kills all harmful organisms.

Americans use the method of the radiation, not the temperature... ok, three technologies ;)

For example: the cooked dish of rice with meat for one person, weighs only 30 grams after processing, and retains up to 97% of all nutrients and minerals. You must add 175 ml hot water and you will get hot lunch. As packing used vacuum bags and cans that simultaneously serve as disposable tableware.

The cosmonaut cuts off the edge of the bag and connects it to a special pump through which water enters. On each package is specified the necessary amount of water for product recovery. The package must be kneaded for 15 minutes. After that, the astronaut cuts the next level of the package and uses a special spoon to eat the finished dish right from the package. Canned food is heated in a special oven.

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To maintain water reserves on the ISS used the principle of regeneration, which is based on three sources: condensation of moisture from the air, purification of used water, organic wastes of astronauts. Thanks to modern equipment, the water on the ISS is recovered approximately on 93%.

A few months before the mission, each astronaut can create his own nutrition plan for each day, there are 200-300 of food and drinks for choice.

This is an example of a typical daily menu for American astronauts (Menu repeats every 8 days).

That’s how looks breakfast in reality, on the example of Russian products: cheese, buckwheat cereal, cookies, crackers, bread, milk, and I can't read what is written on the cans :)

As we said before, you cannot use the spices in the granules, but all genius is simple… All the spices and salt are available only in liquid form. Many cosmonauts complain that under conditions of weightlessness, food loses its habitual taste.

Blood flow in upper body reduces the smell, and the sensitivity of the taste buds. Food becomes tasteless. Therefore, astronauts constantly use a variety of sauces to enhance the taste, mostly hot.

Wheat tortilla was successfully tested on Earth, and replaced the bread on the orbit. Its preparation method and the resulting structure solve the problem of crumbs.

It is obvious that even the most patient person, having spent a year at the space station, will get tired even from such a varied menu. 300 products is negligible, compared to the choices available on Earth. Therefore, sometimes astronauts give free rein to the imagination when cooking.

And of course it is impossible to deny people a special holiday menu. Thanksgiving Day dinner: smoked turkey, sweet potatoes, baked potatoes and corn.

The ISS was visited by astronauts from a dozen countries, and each of them added national dishes to the menu.

Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish. It is fermented cabbage seasoned with red pepper, onion, garlic and ginger, comes in the form of canned food.

Astronauts from Korea prefer not completely sublimated products, and something between a soup and sauce. During testing, these meals showed a high degree of bacteria, but this problem was solved by irradiation.

The Chinese develop an individual menu for each space mission. The first Chinese astronaut in orbit was eating pork, kung pao chicken and rice, washed down with a traditional herbal tea. (China doesn't participate in the ISS program)

The Japanese were also unable to refuse the tea and brought to the ISS Oolong tea in powder form. Also there was a lot of noodles with seafood and soy sauce in menu. Away from home it is very important to stick to traditions.

Each delivery of food includes a small amount of fruit and nuts. This is the only products that are not subjected to heat treatment. But, their shelf life is very limited. Only the American segment of the ISS has a fridge, which allows them to store fruits.

Astronauts also get a small refrigerator with ice cream, it is a usual earthly ice cream. Popular on Earth delicacy called “freeze-dried ice cream” never was in space...

Until 2015, all the inhabitants of the ISS hated cosmic coffee. They had to dilute the sublimated powder with water that has not reached boiling point. The taste was disgusting. Italian scientists have solved this problem and created a special space-coffee machine ISSpresso, cost $ 400.400.

Despite different products in the menu of different countries, the crew tries to dine together at one table. All packages of food are equipped with special fasteners so they can be fixed on the trays. I want to believe that all participants of space expeditions from different countries share with each other by food from their kitchen :)

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I'm sure that one day, one of the steem footbobgers will fly into space with the money earned here, and then we'll see the report from the first person. In the meantime, I had to use the following sources of information for this article:

[1], [2],[3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11] images from Google Search.

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