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Hello, everyone. I'm Kara O'Brien.

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Welcome to this special edition of Destination Tomorrow.

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On this episode, we'll be focusing on food.

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Not just any type of food, but the food used in the space program.

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Food is obviously one of the most important factors for sustaining life here on Earth.

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Throughout history, its abundance has helped civilizations rise to great heights,

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while the lack of it has led to collapse.

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The abundance of food also played a major part in the role of early explorers and conquerors alike.

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One major problem that was faced by these groups was how to preserve the food that was brought on long journeys.

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Although techniques like pickling and salting helped keep some foods preserved,

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hunting and foraging accounted for the bulk of the food that was eaten.

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For example, during the Lewis and Clark expedition,

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the men in the Corps of Discovery generally ate about nine pounds of meat apiece each day.

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The bulk of their food came from fresh game killed along the way.

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Rather than from food stores that were brought with them.

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When game was scarce, they often traded beads and trinkets with local Indian tribes for fresh meats,

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like grizzly bear, buffalo, and when all else failed, dogs.

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Having large amounts of food on hand played an important role in military campaigns as well.

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During his reign, Napoleon Bonaparte constantly found that providing food for his soldiers

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was often a harder task than fighting the battles.

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Napoleon famously stated that an army travels on its stomach, soup makes the soldier.

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In fact, Napoleon was so committed to finding a way to preserve food for his soldiers

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that a prize of 12,000 francs was offered to the first person who could invent a method to successfully preserve food.

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After years of trying, a Parisian named Nicolas Appert came up with an idea that worked.

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Appert successfully preserved food by partially cooking it, sealing it in glass bottles with a cork,

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then immersing the bottle in boiling water.

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This process allowed the remaining air to be expelled through the boiling process, keeping the food fresh.

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Appert's preservation technique proved so successful

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that he was awarded the 12,000 franc prize by Napoleon himself in 1810.

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This represented the origination of the modern canning process for food.

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Not to be outdone, by about 1812, the British army was preserving food in tin cans rather than in glass bottles.

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Tin cans were much more durable than glass and proved to be easier to store.

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By about 1818, the British navy was storing over 40,000 pounds of food preserved in cans on board its ships,

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keeping crews well-fed and healthy.

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This military use eventually trickled down into everyday civilian life,

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helping the general public live healthier lives as well.

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The preserving process became even more widespread in the late 1800s

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with Frenchman Louis Pasteur's work in germ theory.

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This theory proved that tiny living microbes caused food to spoil.

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In his research, Pasteur determined he could gently heat foods and liquids

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to a temperature that would kill the microbes without altering the taste.

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Then chilling the foods and liquids would prevent any remaining microbes from multiplying.

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This process is now known as pasteurization.

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Food preservation became even more interesting with the development of space flight.

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In order to undertake manned missions in microgravity,

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NASA scientists needed to understand the relationship between food and the astronaut in space.

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In the early days of the space program,

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scientists were unsure if the human body could physically even swallow food in space.

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The proof they were looking for came on the third Mercury flight

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when John Glenn consumed applesauce from an aluminum tube.

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Most of the early food items packaged for space were chosen more for utility than for taste.

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This is because in the pressurized weightlessness of space,

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things like crumbs, liquids, and odors do not simply go away.

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They float around the spacecraft, decreasing the air quality,

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while also being potentially distracting.

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To help alleviate this problem, most food was stored in aluminum tubes

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that looked very similar to toothpaste tubes.

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There were also packages of small bite-sized cubes of food

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that were approximately half an inch in size.

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These cubes consisted of a high-calorie mixture of proteins, such as fruits and nuts,

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coated with an edible film to prevent crumbs.

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Although the meals contained the appropriate daily amount of calories,

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the food was not appealing to most astronauts.

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Often, crews would return from space having lost weight

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because they did not eat all of their assigned meals.