The question of meal time aboard an
orbiting spacecraft raises still another
provocative question. How many meals to
the moon? Solving the problems of food
preparation, packaging, storing, serving,
and disposal is the challenge given to
the life-support department of the
Whirlpool Corporation. Working in
cooperation with the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
manned spacecraft Center. Now if you're
like me you probably associate the name
Whirlpool not with space, but with fine
quality home appliances. It's small
wonder that Whirlpool is uniquely suited
to feed America's astronauts. Its space
food management system was thoroughly
tested and proved in the Gemini program
during which our astronauts lived in
space for lengthy periods, performed
daring maneuvers requiring peak physical
condition. No air, no gravity, no up, no
down. That makes orientation to familiar
base points somewhat difficult. Explorers
have always had to wrestle with the
problem of how to pack sufficient food
for their ventures. Space exploration is
no different. Whirlpool devoted months of
Apollo oriented research and development
in its completely modern facilities.
Let's check out meals C day 1. Before
processing for space travel orange
grapefruit drink to start the meal,
sliced roast beef with brown gravy,
potato salad, and for dessert chocolate
pudding and chocolate brownies. Now let's
see how this meal and others like it are
prepared for an Apollo mission and for
the astronauts enjoyment. There are two
basic types of freeze-dried foods used
in an Apollo mission. Rehydratable food
food that must be reconstituted with
water and solid bite-sized cube foods
which are eaten directly from the
package. Let's first consider a
rehydratable item. How about a flavorful
fruit salad
the fruit is diced carefully so as to
retain texture? Plump Michigan peaches
and pears from the heart of America's
fruit belt are mixed with pineapples and
cherries. The fruits are then blended
then molded into bars for convenient
packaging. Freeze drying doesn't change
the shape, color, or taste but the removal
of moisture makes the food lighter.
Well this astronaut is ready to chow
down and being in a zero gravity
condition it'll be like trying to eat
while floating weightless. Once in orbit
when the crew compartment is pressurized,
he can stow his spacesuit and do his
work and eat in his constant wear
garment. The fruit salad package, as with
all rehydratable foods, has an injection
valve at one end and a sealed eating
tube at the other. This being fruit salad,
he inserts the cold valve nozzle at the
metered dispenser into the package and
injects cold water. As he removes the
package, the valves and the water
dispenser and the package
seal themselves preventing any
spillage. The rehydrated fruit salad is
now ready to be eaten and enjoyed.
Between meals this space pioneer of
today may chew a stick of sugarless gum
to tide him over. But these young
Americans are the space pioneers of
tomorrow limited only by their
imaginations. Boys now, but their's may
well be the future task of probing ever
deeper into the vastness of our solar
system planets such as Mars, Venus,
Jupiter, and Saturn.
