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Coming up on Part 2 of this special two-part Destination Tomorrow, we take a look at food

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technology and how it is used by NASA.

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We'll see what the future holds for food technology on long-duration missions to planets

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like Mars.

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Plus, Jonny Alonzo speaks with astronaut Mike Fole to find out what it is like to live and

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eat in space.

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All this and more next on Destination Tomorrow.

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Hello everyone, I'm Cara O'Brien and welcome to Part 2 of this special edition of Destination

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Tomorrow.

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In Part 1, we found out how NASA researchers have made improvements in the types of foods

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astronauts have eaten since the beginning of the space program up to today.

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On this program, we will be discussing future food technologies and how they will be used

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on long-duration missions.

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Recently, it was announced that NASA is planning to send a crewed mission back to the Moon

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and to Mars.

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Obviously, huge technological challenges will need to be overcome before these missions

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can be successfully accomplished.

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NASA researchers realized that trips like these will require building the appropriate

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type of spacecraft, having flawless life support systems, and will need the right

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tools to perform work once we arrive on these distant worlds.

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But a major concern that often gets overlooked by the general public is what types of food

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will be eaten by our astronauts on these long missions.

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Fortunately, previous missions to low-Earth orbit in the space shuttle and longer missions

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aboard the International Space Station have helped NASA better understand how food and

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the astronaut interact.

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Not much is known about how food will fare on these long missions.

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The primary goal of the food systems in these long missions will be to provide a palatable,

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nutritious, and safe food for our explorers while also taking up as little room as possible.

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Food is vital for survival here on Earth, but is even more important in some respects

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in space.

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Its preparation, quantity, and quality are critical and can affect astronauts on a physiological

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level.

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One of the most crucial problems on long missions is bone loss.

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Typically, astronauts lose 1 to 2 percent of bone mass each month that they are in space,

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especially in the lower halves of their bodies.

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In the weightless environment of space, there is almost no stress on the skeletal system.

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Bones are no longer providing support to walk and are not being used to maintain body posture.

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This lack of stress on the bones may be a key factor in an astronaut's progressive bone

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loss in space.

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Other problems like fluid shift and space motion sickness must be taken into account

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when providing food to the astronaut crews.

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Meals must be chosen that can help slow many of the problems faced by astronauts.

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Another major concern for NASA food scientists is the stability of food that is packaged

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for these missions.

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It's vital that the food remain edible for years at a time, staying safe and stable aboard

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the spacecraft.

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This is perhaps one of the most important factors of the planned long-duration missions.

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If the food spoils, there are no options currently available to astronauts for nourishment.

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With missions to Mars requiring at least three years to complete, stored food must remain

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shelf-stable for that time, preferably longer.

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In the short term, food systems that are currently being used aboard the shuttle and space station

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are suitable for transit to another world, but once astronauts arrive, other alternatives

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need to be considered.

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With these thoughts in mind, researchers at NASA are developing new ways to help crews

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eat well in space.

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In addition to storing food aboard the spacecraft, many at NASA believe that growing food in

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space or on planetary surfaces will need to be perfected to help feed astronauts on these

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long missions.

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Coming up, Jennifer Pooley speaks with Dr. Michelle Perchonok at NASA Johnson Space Center

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to find out about food for the future.

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But first...

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Did you know that freeze-dried ice cream sold in many museums today is not really eaten

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by our astronauts in space?

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In the mid-1960s, scientists blended and froze a mixture of coconut fat, milk solids

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and sugar, then ground and compressed the mixture into cubes under high pressure, making

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a freeze-dried ice cream.

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This concoction was only taken into space once.

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In 1968, the Apollo 7 astronauts tested it while orbiting Earth.

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Although it is not known exactly what the crew thought of the ice cream, it's telling

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it was put on only one mission.

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Incidentally, the product sold today in the museum is produced differently.

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It is simply ice cream cut into cubes, then freeze-dried.

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One of the biggest challenges facing NASA in the development of long-duration space

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missions is food.

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In centuries past, explorers could almost always find food in their surroundings, even

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if they were thousands of miles from home.

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Of course, this same luxury will not be afforded to space travelers.

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They will have to rely solely on food that is taken with them, or that can be grown during

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the mission, in the vehicle, or on the planetary surface.

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Although this may seem daunting, researchers at NASA are now developing viable systems

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to help keep our astronauts well-fed on long-space missions.

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I spoke with National Space Biomedical Research Institute food scientist, Dr. Michelle Prochonok,

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here at NASA Johnson Space Center, to find out more.

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Well, we have several goals.

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First is safety.

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We have to make sure the food is safe so that the crew doesn't get sick.

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Second of all, we have to make sure it's nutritious.

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The crew is getting all of their nutrition from the food.

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And thirdly is acceptability.

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If the food isn't acceptable, the crew is not going to like it.

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And we know that as the duration of the missions get longer, we need to make sure that that

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food is acceptable to them.

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And we do testing, and we'll be doing testing here at Johnson Space Center on the acceptability

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of the food with the general Johnson Space Center public, and then later with the actual

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crews.

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So, what are some of the challenges that you'll have to overcome?

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Well, first of all, it's going to take us six to eight months to get to Mars with the

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current propulsion system.

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And yes, there are engineers here at NASA trying to get the propulsion systems improved,

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but right now it's six to eight months, and of course six to eight months home.

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And because of the way the planets align with each other, it's going to be 18 months on

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the surface.

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So, the mission is going to be somewhere on the order of two and a half to three years

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long.

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So, what that means is we're going to have two kinds of food systems.

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The first is a transit food system.

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On the vehicle, because of microgravity, it is very difficult or almost impossible to

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do any sort of preparation or cooking of the food.

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So, we're going to have a food system that's very similar to the ISS food system, prepackaged

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foods.

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Most likely, they'll be stored at room temperature, so we won't have a refrigerator or a freezer.

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Well, that gives us some challenges because it's very difficult to find some foods that

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have a three to five year shelf life at room temperature and that you're not keeping it

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frozen or even at refrigerated temperatures.

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The other part of the challenge is looking at the packaging materials to make sure that

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we have the barrier properties to provide us with that three to five year challenge.

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So, we have that issue.

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Now, think about it.

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Six months, you've got all these packages of food because at each meal, you've got about

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three to five packages of food for each crew member times three meals and snacks.

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How do you store all this?

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Not only are you storing it at ambient or room temperatures, but you have to keep track

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of it, inventory management and tracking and knowing where it is and how much you've used

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and when you've used it.

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So, the challenges are unbelievable even just for the transit mission and even though we've

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done it already on ISS and Shuttle, we've got that many more challenges to go after

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for this.

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One of the main challenges for NASA planners will be to provide food that will help keep

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crews healthy and happy, while also helping the astronauts' bodies acclimate to the rigors

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of space travel.

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During these long missions, astronaut physiology will need to be taken into consideration.

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The human body has adapted to the effects of gravity here on Earth, but once gravity

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is reduced, the body slowly begins to adapt to its new surroundings.

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During this adaptation process, weight loss, dehydration, constipation, electrolyte imbalance,

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bone loss and a myriad of other problems may occur.

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To help prevent or alleviate many of these problems, researchers are investigating the

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levels of nutrients each astronaut may need.

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Proper diet and exercise should counteract many of the problems associated with the physiological

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changes.

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So that takes care of the transit, of getting to Mars.

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Once they're there, on Mars, then what?

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Well, then we have the opportunity to use the gravity of Mars.

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Mars has one-third gravity, so that's a little bit of gravity, enough to keep things down

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towards our feet.

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And with that, we can start looking at processing and preparing food.

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Now, we may be growing some of these crops, or we may be bringing up these items in bulk,

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such as soybeans or wheat.

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We will have to grow the vegetables and fruits because those don't have the shelf life we

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need.

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When I talk about bulk, what we're saying is we're going to bring up in large quantities

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unprocessed foods that you would then add in, either through processing or maybe in

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the recipe.

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So, for example, we would bring up large quantities of soybeans, and then we could use those soybeans

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to process into texturized vegetable proteins, or maybe we make it into tofu.

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So we would have that opportunity for more variety, therefore more acceptability in the

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processed food system.

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We'll also be bringing up items that will help us do the preparation in the galley,

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such as dried herbs and spices, or dried nonfat dry milk, or maybe dried egg whites, because

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it's going to be hard to bake a cookie or a cake without those kinds of ingredients.

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And in addition to the baking soda and baking powder.

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So we're looking at all those different ingredients, what the quantities might be, and whether

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they will also last that three to five year shelf life, and how we're going to store them.

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We think we'll have to store the soybeans and the wheat berries at refrigerated temperatures,

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and probably in a non-oxygen atmosphere.

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Oxygen's not food's friend, and we want to keep the oxygen away from those bulk ingredients

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until they're used.

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Other than providing bulk foods, there is also a plan for astronauts to grow food once

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they arrive and set up planetary bases.

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The plan would consist of crews growing crops hydroponically, which means to grow the food

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by using water rather than soil.

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Having fresh crops would not only provide variety in the menu, but would also offer

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great psychological benefits to the crews as well.

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With both fresh foods and bulk ingredients, crews would be able to process many of the

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foods that they would be eating.

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Processing food would consist of taking one type of food and making it into many different

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types of foods.

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As Michelle mentioned, foods such as soybeans could be processed and made into tofu, soy

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milk, soy oil, soy flour, and many other items.

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Other foods that would be ideal for processing include potatoes, wheat, rice, tomatoes, and

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peanuts.

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With the right equipment, crews could potentially grow and process large amounts of the food

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they would need to survive on site, rather than solely relying on food from Earth.

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Well processing is not so hard down here, but now we need to worry about not bringing

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up too much weight, too much volume, and trying to be multifunctional with the equipment.

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For example, maybe a piece of equipment will not only make pasta, but it'll also mill

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wheat berries, and it may also make cereal for breakfast.

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Crew time is an issue.

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You don't want the crew to be spending all their time processing and preparing the foods

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because they want to be out there exploring and doing real science.

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Weight is going to be a major factor in getting crews to other planets.

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Knowing this, NASA planners are deciding if they should provide multifunctional processing

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equipment, or if they should rely on age-old proven methods of food processing.

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For example, how do we make bread?

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Well, we could do the more modern way of putting everything into the bread maker and letting

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it happen, or we could actually just go the old-fashioned way, mix all the dough up, knead

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it, let it rise, knead it again, let it rise again, and then bake it.

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And we're going to have to be looking at where that fine line is on crew time versus automation

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and the mass that we would have to uplift to the Mars surface.

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They're not at Mars to do cooking.

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They can do that at home.

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They're there to explore.

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To help make NASA's exploration goals a reality, NASA planners are also relying on outside

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help.

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Many colleges, universities, and other entities are performing experiments on food and processing

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equipment that may someday be used in the space program.

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The expertise that is being provided will help focus and quicken the development of

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technologies that will make exploration possible.

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We are a small group here, and we're not the experts in everything, so we go externally.

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For example, we have a researcher at UC Davis looking at developing, and he's actually built

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a prototype on a multipurpose fruit and vegetable processor, testing it using tomatoes, but

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again, a multipurpose piece of equipment that will dice, cut, concentrate the tomatoes

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or anything else.

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One of our faculty fellows actually has looked at radiation issues.

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We know that radiation is going to be an issue.

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We know it for the crew as well as, we believe, for the food, but we don't know at what extent.

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So Dr. Wilson's been working on how radiation affects soybean functionality, and he's looking

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at it on two sides.

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Again, the safety side.

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If you're going to bring up bulk ingredients, you need to make sure they're clean and safe

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before you bring them up.

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Then, he also is looking at what kind of radiation they may incur during a mission to Mars.

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We don't have the atmosphere here on Earth on Mars, so he's looking at how that's affecting,

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for him, the tofu processing or manufacture.

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He's finding that, yes, at higher levels of radiation, the tofu isn't made quite as firm,

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and it has an off flavor, an aroma to it, because we get that rancidity from the oil.

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Well, Michelle, it seems like you and your co-workers really have your work cut out for

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you.

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We do.

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It's going to be a huge challenge, but we're going to do it.

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Although the Mars mission is more than 25 years away, we're still going to be able to

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potentially use some of the technologies that we're working on here on Earth before that

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time.

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So what we're learning today will not only help our astronauts, but will help the people

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here on Earth also.

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With proper cultivation, many of the technologies that are being developed to help our astronauts

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eat well in space may also someday be used to help feed people back here on Earth.

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An added byproduct of plants being grown on permanent planetary bases is that plants will

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not only be eaten by astronauts, but they will also be providing oxygen.

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In a moment, we'll meet an astronaut who will give us a first-person account of what it

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is like to live and eat in space.

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First, did you know that the first time solid food was eaten in space was on Gemini 3?

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Astronaut John Young carried two meal packages to sample on his five-hour mission.

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While in orbit, Young surprised fellow astronaut Virgil Grissom when he presented him with

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a corned beef sandwich on rye, which had been purchased at a delicatessen in Cocoa Beach,

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Florida.

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Although Grissom enjoyed the gesture, he did not finish the sandwich because it was producing

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so many crumbs.

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Many of us have only dreamed of going to space, but only a few of the best and brightest have

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actually had the opportunity.

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But an even smaller amount have spent long periods of time there.

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The experiments and data collected from these pioneers is helping scientists and future

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astronauts learn more about the effects of long-duration missions on the human body.

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One of these pioneers that has spent significant time in space helping lead the way is astronaut

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Michael Full.

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A veteran of six spaceflights, Full is credited with four spacewalks totaling almost 23 hours.

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He's also spent time on both the Russian space station Mir and was the commander of Expedition

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8 aboard the International Space Station.

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He currently holds the U.S. record for time spent in space at 374 days, 11 hours and 19

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minutes.

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So who better to help us understand what it's like to actually live and eat in space?

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Johnny Alonzo spoke with Dr. Full to find out how it works.

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The International Space Station is without doubt one of the most amazing structures ever

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built.

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Orbiting Earth some 242 miles above us, its stated goal is to teach us how to live in

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space for long periods of time.

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Although there are many areas of scientific study being researched, one of the most important

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is food technology.

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Understanding how the human body interacts with food in microgravity will be one of several

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key questions that need to be answered when we travel outside of Earth's orbit for long

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periods of time.

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Who better to ask about food in space than an astronaut who spent over a year on both

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the ISS and the Mir eating a variety of different foods?

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Astronaut Mike Full will give us the skinny on what it's like to live in space and to

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find out how it works.

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Eating in space is a treat.

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Basically you get hungry, you get thirsty just like we do on Earth.

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After the first day in space, when you get launched into space, your stomach lifts up

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a little bit as you float.

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And so for the very first hours after arrival in space, there isn't a desire to eat.

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And that's because you're finding some vestibular issues, some nausea.

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But those pass, and they pass pretty quickly.

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In my case, two or three hours.

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After about two orbits, an orbit is one and a half hours, 90 minutes.

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After about two or three orbits, you're starting to get ready to take off your space suit that

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you use to launch into space.

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In my last flight, it was on a Soyuz rocket.

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You get out of this cramped space, stretch out, you change clothes into something soft,

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not this bulky, awkward space suit.

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And then you think about eating.

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There are many different types of fare, food fare I mean, in space.

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On the Soyuz rocket, which is probably the most meager food cuisine I've come across

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in my career.

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The Soyuz simply has dried foods and juices.

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This food is really not made for a real meal.

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However, it's enough to get us by for the two days it takes to get to the International Space Station.

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You get to the space station after two days, and it's a wonderful, wonderful sight.

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You know, not only there are friends there, there's more places to stretch out and move about,

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big windows, but there's also food, real food, and they're talking to you about it.

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You know, they're saying, hey, what should we put on for you?

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And the first thing that came to my mind was I remembered my experience of Russian foods

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and American foods that we shared 50-50.

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Where we keep our food.

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The red boxes are Russian food.

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The blue boxes are American food.

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Why do we have so few American boxes?

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That's a good question.

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I'm not sure what I'm going to have tonight, but I think it's going to be American.

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Ah.

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I've got chocolate pudding cake.

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Not sure I want that just yet.

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All right, let it go.

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Let's try something else.

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One of the worst things to eat in space, but they still keep sending it, both Americans and Russians,

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they send crackers.

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And you eat crackers and they go...

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And you have all these crumbs flying out.

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And the whole issue is to somehow put the cracker into your mouth and then seal your lips around it

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and then crunch on it so the crumbs don't explode out of your mouth.

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Tell me, does food in space taste differently than it does here on Earth?

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The issue of taste in space is one of, I think, research.

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In my personal experience, I don't believe my taste, my sensation of taste really changes in space.

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I did notice on my first long-duration flight on the space station Mir,

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over time I started to want or crave salty foods more.

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So, Mike, when it's time to eat, do you guys all get together at the table or do you sit by yourself?

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What's the procedure?

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The most important thing I think anybody does in their day is eat.

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And what do we do? We're social creatures, human beings, and we like to eat together.

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And that's where social events normally occur, is around food or drink.

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The same is true in space.

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And as the commander of the International Space Station,

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I understood very, very clearly that I was not going to let us, just two of us for most of the time,

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Sasha Kaleri and myself, eat at different times.

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Because then we would start to come apart. We wouldn't understand each other.

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There wouldn't be the exchange. It would just be very, very poor.

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It's hard enough living for six and a half months in a small space with only one other person far away from everybody else.

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So I said, Sasha, we're going to have breakfast.

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We're going to have maybe, you know, a coffee break, about 11.

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And we're going to go to lunch.

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And we're going to have a fixed lunch.

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And we're not going to let the ground bother us.

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And we're going to make it clear to the ground we don't want to be bothered.

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And we're going to go to tea at about, like, four.

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And then we go to evening meal at about seven.

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And sure enough, we then got this routine going.

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This is a good example of a space shuttle tray.

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Not often used, simply because the tray really is designed to hold your food.

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Now here in front of you, it's very convenient for me to just hold the implements that I would use to talk about eating.

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But actually, on the International Space Station, or indeed on the space shuttle,

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there's so much Velcro patches around that you can always use the same food implements or items

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to simply stick your food to whatever Velcro is near you.

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Any wall, any surface generally has some Velcro nearby.

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And it attaches just with a little Velcro circle.

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They always make a point on the space station or on the space shuttle

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to have hook Velcro on the items that you would attach.

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And they always have pile Velcro on the walls.

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Pile is softer. It doesn't scratch your skin, for one thing.

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So it's just more comfortable to be around everywhere.

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And then you make hook Velcro, the stuff that's just kind of small and specific.

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And so I'm holding right here minestrone soup.

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And notice there's a barcode.

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There's also soup minestrone, which is in Russian.

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And I read that for you.

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The barcode is used in the case that we have to do any food logging experiments.

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They know exactly how many calories, what the food value is of this packet.

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And we have food specialists who know exactly what's in this,

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all the vitamins, all the calories, fats, et cetera, and cholesterols.

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If we're going to drink water, for example, we would still log it.

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Even though there's no calories in it, we would scan the packet,

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and we'd fill it with the right amount of water.

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So we've been talking about all this food.

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I mean, how do you control your weight in orbit?

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Obviously, you eat more or you eat less, and your weight will change.

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In space, the initial reaction, the first two days, is for you to go to toilet a lot,

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and you lose a lot of fluids.

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You probably lose 5 to 10 pounds just in the first two days, just through fluid loss.

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And a lot of the fluid is coming from your legs.

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It's also shifting up into your upper body.

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That's why when you see people on television from space, they kind of have slightly puffed-up cheeks.

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I do believe we actually lose that fluid shift somewhat in our faces

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because we basically just lost fluid.

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So that's a change in the body, and so you have lost weight at that point.

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And we measure our mass every two weeks.

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And the first month of my flight, we talk to our flight surgeons, our doctors,

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every week about how things are going.

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And generally, it's always, how are you doing, nothing's wrong, et cetera.

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They want us to eat enough so that our mass, our weight on Earth, stays the same.

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And they know that when you come back to Earth, those astronauts,

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and we've had many different types of flight, many different cases,

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those astronauts that have not kept their weight on orbit but have lost weight

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do very poorly recovering on Earth.

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They don't get their fluids back into their body quick enough.

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They aren't strong enough to move around easily.

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So I was being told by my flight surgeon, Mike, eat.

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And I went, yes, I will.

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So it was simply a license to eat.

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So that's how it works.

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So if you're into really expensive takeout, I've got the stuff for you.

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Mmm, minestrone.

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That's all for this edition of NASA's Destination Tomorrow.

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I'm Cara O'Brien.

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For all of us here at NASA, we'll see you next time.

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology