It may not
be fresh out of the oven, but Thanksgiving dinner will still be a treat for two
astronauts circling the Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
ISS Expedition
12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev have set
aside sealed packs of turkey, dehydrated vegetables and drinks for the
traditional American holiday.
“I’m
going to try to prepare, what for the McArthur family is a traditional
Thanksgiving dinner,” McArthur said during a video
message describing his upcoming holiday meal. “Did you know that
mashed potatoes with onions could be dehydrated?”
McArthur
and Tokarev are in the eighth week of their six-month mission aboard the ISS.
While
Tokarev said Thanksgiving is a primarily American holiday, he looks forward to
sharing the day with his spaceflight partner.
“We
don’t have so many options of celebration for the day in Russia,”
said Tokarev, a cosmonaut with Russia’s Federal Space Agency. “But
we also like to get together for some celebration. We are like brothers on
board.”
Setting
the table
McArthur’s
plan for Thanksgiving dinner calls for packaged smoked turkey, lemonade and
tea, as well as dehydrated green beans, asparagus and other vegetables.
“They
feel a little bit like Styrofoam before they’ve had water,”
McArthur said of the dehydrated vegetables.
Space
station astronauts sample a full menu of available U.S. and Russian food before
launch to allow nutritionists to set up a 10-day in-flight meal rotation. While
they don’t have chilled water available for cold items, they do have warm
and hot water available for rehydration, as well as food warmer for other
items, NASA officials said.
“Each
day is set up with three meals and a snack,” said Vickie Kloeris, flight food
systems manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “But we
don’t really store a Thanksgiving meal per se.”
Instead,
meals aboard the ISS are pantry style, with astronauts choosing from the
variety of foods in their 10-day schedule, Kloeris said. Shipping up specific
holiday foods to the ISS is tough since their menus are prepared months in
advance when some theme items are not in season, but general foods – like
turkey – can be set aside in space or included in bonus treat containers
for each astronaut, she added.
“For
me, cranberries have always been a traditional part of our Thanksgiving dinner,”
McArthur said,
waving a sealed package of the fruit before the ISS camera in the video
message.
Future
eats
Future
astronauts serving aboard expeditions to Moon or Mars may have more on their holiday
plate than the ISS crew.
The
potential to grow vegetables, fruits and other plants on a lunar or Mars base
would add a much appreciated texture to mealtimes, NASA officials said. Initial
short trips to the Moon will likely rely on the same foodstuffs used aboard the
ISS, but long duration trips could expand their diet, they added.
“We’re going to start
growing crops,” said Michele Perchonok, head of NASA’s advanced
food system group at JSC. “We’ll start with vegetables and fruits
like spinach and onions…then on to white and sweet potatoes.”
A live
turkey will still not be in the cards for lunar Thanksgivings, but packaged and
irradiated versions can still be shipped up to future explorers, Perchonok
said.
“We’re
in a closed environment and you may not want to live so close to live animals,”
Perchonok said. “But instead of dehydrated mashed potatoes and candied
yams, you could make it from real vegetables.”
In addition
to the tasty advantages of cooking at least some of your dinner from fresh crops,
there is also a psychological plus to new aromas, crunchy textures and the
presence of growing plants in a sterile environment, NASA officials said.
Aboard the
ISS, astronauts have grown soy beans, radishes and some other plants to study
their growth, but the arrival of fresh fruits aboard Russian cargo ships has
always been a landmark event.
McArthur
and Tokarev are awaiting a fresh cargo delivery aboard the unmanned Progress 20
supply ship set to dock at the ISS on Dec. 23 to deliver food, supplies and
gifts to the station crew in time for Christmas.
“Perhaps
the most difficult thing for use being in orbit is being away from our family,”
McArthur said. “But when we look down at the Earth, we realize that we
have a home planet and we realize that all members of humanity are one big
family with us.”
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