Revision as of 21:37, 4 October 2010

On December 24, 1968, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders broadcast a message to the American public from Apollo 8: “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." The three men, perhaps longing just a little more than usual for the comforts of home on Christmas Eve, then opened their thermostabilized flexible cans of turkey chunks and gravy and had their dinner.

The meal was a special gift from NASA – no rehydration required – a sacrifice of precious space and weight on the shuttle. And, despite worries that eating from an open container could contaminate their delicate environment, the men were given spoons to eat with. It was the first time astronauts had used an eating utensil in outer space and it marked the beginning of a major NASA food system redesign that, for the very first time, incorporated dining culture into outer space.

The Spoon-bowl, a package designed for use on Apollo flights 9 through 14 [check this], allowed astronauts to dip spoons into flexible ‘bowls’ that contained rehydrated foods. The innovation was a nuisance for NASA nutritionists and food designers; a precisely engineered food system had been in place since the Mercury missions (1959-1963). But the longer the flight became, the more weight the astronauts lost. Male anorexia became a chronic problem as the men lost interest in eating in-flight meals. The simple act of eating with a spoon, from a bowl, became a key component of the astronaut's psychological fabric as they floated through our universe, staring back at home.

History

Before sending the first man into space in 1959, debates between nutritionists, food technologists and NASA officials nervously predicted the dangers of eating in space. Would astronauts choke when swallowing in zero gravity? Could stray crumbs and juice droplets cause pneumonia if breathed in? Could edible food even withstand the extreme temperatures and pressure of space travel?

With so many unknown factors, the food systems designed for space travel developed tentatively, improving slowly over the course of the earliest American Space missions, Mercury (1959-1963), Gemini (1963-1966), and Apollo (1961-1972).

In 1960, NASA nutritionist [check title] Beatrice Finkelstein discussed food in space in her article, “Food, Nutrition, and the Space Traveler.” She expected that long-term space voyages would one-day be possible, and wondered: how could we fit enough food into the shuttle?

Her primary concern was weight. Finkelstein figured that the average human consumes approximately 550 pounds of oxygen per year, nearly one ton of liquids, and over 2,500 pounds of food. And then there’s the packaging, the storage…it would be impossible to achieve the velocity required for the shuttle to escape the earth’s gravitational force. [add her illustration of the asteroid ship]

Despite her ambitious descriptions of long-term food regeneration, Finkelstein more importantly recognized that for humans, food has deep psychological value. That it is one of the few acts of mankind in space from which he can derive the pleasures of home (Finkelstein, 796). But – the use of utensils would not be possible. She continues with authority:

A number of interesting phenomena would occur when ordinary methods of eating and drinking are employed in a space ship in a state of weightlessness. If a piece of meat should slip while being cut, it would fly off the plate and splatter against the wall, bounce back and then continue to bounce back and forth off the walls, ceiling and floor. A fork full of peas raised to the mouth would continue in its upward flight to the ceiling and be reflected back, bombarding like buckshot. A cup of coffee raised to the mouth would result in the astronaut’s receiving the contents in his face (Finkelstein, 797).

Tubes and Cubes

The Human Problem

Although NASA scientists engineered nutritionally optimal food items, packaging that could withstand extreme temperature and pressure changes, and compact, high density storage, they soon discovered one element they could not control – personal agency. As Dr. Malcom Smith, Chief of Food and Nutrition at NASA reported in a 1969 article for Nutrition Today, “Until recently, machines presented most of our problems. But now our machines are functioning flawlessly. The problems now emerging are human.”

Documents prepared by the NASA team addressing the issues of food system re-design ring with a mixture of surprise and annoyance. The astronauts had been selected because they were super men; men that could both mentally and physically withstand […] the realm of gods. The American people watched with fascination as they whittled down from [number here] to the seven Mercury astronauts that would “ride the first manned satellites out of a ballistic missile blasted 125 miles into the sky.” They underwent testing that proved their resistance to extreme stress, temperatures, acceleration and confusion. They pondered the question, “Who am I?” They were as super as humans could be.

Nutrition and the Psyche

“Food acceptance” was one of the Administration’s primary concerns for Gemini and Apollo astronauts, and extensive research tested how the human psyche reacted to the combination of nutrition, confinement, and sensory deprivation. In short, how people ate in the absence of ‘culture.’ In October of 1964, four male college students received $1,000 each from the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories for participating in a study that measured their reaction to six weeks of “freeze dehydrated foods.” They spent 28 days in a capsule made to simulate spacecraft and an additional 14 in confinement, during which they could not change clothes, brush teeth, or bathe. They were declared “no worse for the wear.” The test subjects proved that, yes, one could survive on “astronaut food.” Yet, when astronauts went up into space they often exhibited signs of anorexia and lost precious body mass.

The success of the NASA food system was measured after each flight, noting the total quantity consumed, post-flight crew feedback, and changes in body weight. But the data was flawed. Crewmembers often traded meals (and neglected to record them) like children in the schoolyard. According to one report on the Apollo food program, a mission 7 astronaut tried in vain to trade his crewmate his entire meal for a single serving of freeze-dried tuna. Scientists began to understand that “our intensive efforts to portion and balance in-flight nutrients are of little value if the food is not eaten.” Focus shifted from nutrient content to psychological acceptance – meals had to not only be nutritionally dense, but had to be enjoyable, too.

The Mercury and Apollo Food System

Food for space had to be highly designed and satisfy disparate requirements, and respond to multiple factors and issues:

1. “Most foods are real biological materials that have lost the original capabilities to adapt to environmental changes” 2. “Food habits and prejudices are highly individualized and deeply ingrained in the tastes of the intended consumers (the astronauts) and the interested nonconsumers (the program, system, and subsystem managers).” 3. “Foods are inadequately defined in biological terms, and this situation is compounded by the need of aerospace system management to have absolute definitions of foods in engineering terms.” 4. “Criteria and configurations usually are required long before specific knowledge of the final consumer is available.”

Tubes and Cubes

Freeze dried foods maintain their color, texture, flavor and nutrient content, therefore it became a preferred method of food processing for space flight.

During the Gemini space program, food designers faced stringent space and weight requirements. These longer flights required nutritional provisions for as long as two weeks – there had to be adequate provision of energy, fat, protein, minerals and vitamins. The Gemini food system envelope held 1.7 lb/man/day, 110 in (cubed)/man/day. This space/weight requirement included the packing materials that had to withstand extreme temperatures, pressures, accelerations and vibatory conditions. For this reason, the food provided on the Gemini mission largely consisted of dehydrated foods. The downside was the time and energy the astronauts had to spend on food reconsitution (as long as 30 minutes) as well as fact that the food wasn’t very appetizing (low food acceptance rates).

Going into the Apollo missions, it was expected that the Gemini food system was adequate; limited staff and funding were devoted to food development. However, observations of the Apollo 7, 8, and 9 missions showed that the food system was inadequate and needed much development.

[Insert image of the “organizational support for the Apollo food system and personal hygiene items, Apollo Experience Report p. 4]

Menu Planning

“End-item testing was divided into acceptance testing, package testing, unintentional-additive analyses, microbiologic testing, storage environment inspection, testing to detect storage deterioration, ad nutrient analyses. Acceptance testing consisted of organoleptic evaluation of flavor and appearance by a panel of food experts. Each product was required to rate at least 6 on a 9-point hedonic scale, which as a null point at 5. Foods receiving an average rating of 5 or below were rejected.

Chocolate pudding package failure on Apollo 7 mission.

Menu selection section, pg. 37 of Apollo Experience Report, also bibliography listings.

Food System Flaws

There were several issues encountered with the Mercury and Gemini missions that nutritionists and food technologists aimed to overcome with the Apollo food system:

1. Astronauts consumed inadequate amounts of nutrition, causing their weight to drop during flight. 2. Astronauts experienced in-flight nausea and anorexia, for which the food was thought partially responsible. 3. Meal preparation and eating took too much of the crew’s time. 4. Water for food rehydration was unpalatable and “contained undesirable amounts of dissolved gasses. 5. Astronauts experienced functional failures of rehydratable food packages.

Early Apollo in-flight food fell under one of two categories: (1) “light weight, shelf-stable, dehydrated foods that required rehydration prior to consumption” and (2) “ready-to-eat, dehydrated bite-sized foods.”

NASA Spoon-bowl

The spoon-bowl package was introduced for the Apollo 10 flight, and permitted use of a spoon for eating rehydrated foods. The flexible package featured a rehydration valve at the bottom and a large “plastic-zippered opening” at the top. This allowed astronauts to eat meals with large pieces of meat and vegetables for improved texture. This allowed for great expansion of meal choices for astronauts.

“The spoon-bowl package allows for food consumption in a more or less conventional manner by using a spoon to eat from a bowl. The original package for rehydratable food was characterized by squeezing and sucking food through a plastic mouthpiece into the mouth. The spoon-bowl package acts as a bowl after food rehydration and allows for consumption of liquid foods in weightlessness with the aid of a conventional serving spoon. Conversely, food can be readily consumed in the original squeeze and suction method by removing the rehydration valve after rehydration mixing and using this orifice as a mouthpiece.”

“Limited quantities of the spoon-bowl package were first used on the Apollo 10 flight. This pouch package is shaped with an extension on one side at the bottom of the package for the rehydration valve. Rehydration of foods in the spoon-bowl package is accomplished in the same manner as for the original rehydratable-food package. Afer the food is mixed with water, the top of the package is cut with scissors along a marked line. The cut flap is held out of the way by mating Velcro patches on the flap and body of the package. Two parallel plastic zippers are incorporated at the top of the package. The use of two zippers effect a stronger temporary closure, and the lower zipper also serves a s place where excess food can be scraped off the spoon during consumption. Both zippers may be used for temporary reclosure of the package during the mealtime and for final closure after eating, before stowage of the used package with any food residue and a germicidal tablet. On each side of the package, a finger/thumb loop is avaialbe for use by the crewman for one-handed opening and closing while using the other hand to spoon out the contents in a rather conventional fashion.”

Packaging Considerations

Important design considerations when developing food packaging for the Apollo mission:

1. “Protection : the food package must prevent physical abrasion and deformation and provide a barrier to adventitious contamination by oxygen, water, inert particles, chemicals, and mico-organisms.” 2. “Identification : the food package must identify contents and crewman and must include preparation instructions and traceability information.” 3. “Manufacture : The food packages must be readily reproducible and be of high quality and reliability.” 4. “Weight : The weight of the food package should be minimized by the use of flexible plastic-film laminates.” 5. “Volume : The volume of the food package should be minimized by vacuum packaging and by the use of flexible plastic-film laminates.” 6. “Function : The functional aspects of the food system packaging included the following considerations: a. Practicability of food system use in zero g b. Segregation of discrete sets of food items with a primary package c. Unitization fo food packages into meals by the use of a meal overwrap d. Practicability of food retrieval in the desired sequence e. Provision for food reconsitution by the addition of hot or cold water f. Practicability of managing (restrain, contain, and serve) food during meal periods g. Provision for consumption of food without the use of eating utensils h. Provision for the temporary restraint of the package during food preparation i. Provision for use as waste-stowage containers for food and packaging debris after meals

Scientists continually developed Apollo mission food packaging throughout the mission. Meal containers were made from flexible packaging that each contained individual portions. Improvements made during the mission included: 1. “An improved, transparent barrier-film of laminated polyethylene-fluorohalocarbon-polyester-polyethylene.” 2. “A water injection port consisting of a one-way, spring-loaded valve.” 3. “An improved opening that permitted food consumption in weightlessness with a conventional tablespoon.”

The Apollo water dispenser provided hot and cold water that the astronauts used for food preparation. After injecting the package with water, the astronaut would then knead the package to distribute the liquid. Early packages also had a tube through which the food could be sucked; the spoon-bowl design, however, permitted use of a utensil.

Spoon-bowl testing

In order to test the feasibility of more “textured” meals, various packages and utensils were tested in aircraft flight that permitted brief periods of weightlessness. This happened during the Apollo 8 and 9 flights.