Teachers Note:

Descriptions: Prepare an tasty and nutritive menu for an astronaut living on board the International Space Station using specialties from your country.

Objective(s): Understand the different purposes of food. Research information on your own gastronomic culture. Adapt your knowledge to certain conditions (weightlessness).

Hints: If you want, you can present some of the experiments that have been carried out for space food:

• Due to very stringent hygienic requirements, the currently available standard space food often lacks taste and appeal. On four spaceflights to the Russian Mir Space Station during 1996-1999, a chef appointed by the French Space Agency CNES in cooperation with Russian specialists provided sample-meals prepared on the basis of improved recipes. The activity was a great success and contributed to the well-being of the crews.

   

• The Mediet experiment is taking place in 2004 for 2 Russian cosmonauts in the ISS, Alexander Kaleri and Gennadi Padalka. Mediet sets an example of how various international food menus can be delivered to the ISS in order to increase the variety of food available for the Station's crew. During a long-term flight cosmonauts will benefit from having an additional variety of food, which adds a little extra in making them feel that the Station is their home during their six-month stay.

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