Woman who trained to be a NASA astronaut can't believe how they eat in space
One woman that trained as a NASA astronaut can't get over the food they eat.
Shola Lee
One woman that trained as a NASA astronaut can't get over the food they eat.
YouTuber Michelle Khare got a pretty wild induction into the NASA training programme, from touring their crafts to enduring the physical tasks and mental training that successful astronauts undergo.
Still, the thing that stood out the most to her was the food, and honestly, you'll be shocked to see it.
We've all heard that space food is weird, but very few of us have tried it; that's where Michelle comes in, with the YouTuber giving us a glimpse into what it's like to eat space food.
The content creator heads to the food lab with Ryan Dowdy, the ISS food system manager at the Johnson Space Center, who helps take the for to the International Space Station (ISS).
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Ryan talks Michelle through the food system, explaining: "The ISS food system has about ten different standard menu containers that the crew is able to eat from at any given time, as well as one crew-specific menu specifically made for you, and you get one container for coffee or tea."
Ryan lets Michelle try some of the flavours, which included a shrimp cocktail - yep freeze-dried, old shrimp cocktail, not exactly what you think when you dream of becoming an astronaut.
If you're wondering why shrimp, it's because the team wants to give astronauts variety in their food so that they don't get bored just eating protein bars for six months straight.
We'd probably take the protein bars over the dried, old shrimp but hey, we aren't astronauts.
The food that Michelle tries was made two years prior and rehydrating it from a powdery substance is a pretty weird site to behold.
But, according to her, the food's actually pretty decent: "I'm really impressed I was honestly expecting to eat Clif bars."
The next thing that the content creator tries is the ISS mac and cheese, which actually does sound way better than freeze-dried shrimp.
And, clearly, it passes the taste test, with Michelle saying: "Oh my god it tastes like homemade mac and cheese from like a really awesome five-star diner."
The cherry blueberry cobbler she has for dessert also gets the seal of approval and after being shocked by the shrimp it's safe to say we're back on board with space food.
If at this point, you're wondering why exactly the food has to be powered, as Ryan explains the 'food is about 90 percent water and after we freeze dry that here in the food lab it goes down to about 10% moisture'.
He continued: "This makes it shelf stable so that bacteria can't grow and spoil the food after we freeze dry it it gets about a three-year shelf life."
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