NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren corrals the supply of fresh fruit that arrived on the Kounotori 5 H-II ... [+] Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5.)

With both NASAs Commercial Crew Program and Virgin Galactic on track to launch crew into space this year, the 2020s are on track to become the decade of space tourism. In anticipation of the industrys expansion, companies such as Bigelow Aerospace have gone as far as to design hotels that will house private space travelers during their stays on orbit. Virgin Galactic, in turn, has a waiting list more than 600 people long for its first suborbital tourist flights.

As a 2010 study by The Tauri Group found, the main customer base for private spaceflight is high net-worth individuals, many of whom are seeking a new luxury travel experience after patronizing the worlds finest hotels and resorts. These individuals, who are willing to pay between $250,000 and $25M USD for a private spaceflight experience, are accustomed to white glove treatment: Not only are they visiting a destination when they travel, but they expect the cream of the crop in accommodation, amenities, and dining during their stay.

Various examples of encapsulated space food including a space shuttle food tray.

Given that the majority of astronaut food is currently freeze-dried and consumed in packages similar to military meal ready-to-eat packets (MREs), private spaceflight providers will need to consider what they can do to help the dining experience meet the rest of the trips luxury standards. Food, as it turns out, is one of the most multidimensional and fundamentally human experiences on Earth, and the psychological benefits of sitting down for a meal or drink should not be underestimated. To date, the design of space food has rightfully focused on nutrition and convenience, as the majority of spacefarers have been government astronauts with scientific mission objectives. However, for space tourism to gain traction among the ultra wealthy, space vehicle operators must begin thinking of their flights as a premium passenger experience rather than a set of minimum requirements.

How, exactly, can the industry make the leap from bagged fruit to fine dining? Certainly, some technological advances will be necessary, some of which are already in work by the scientific research community. It may still be too early to envision a five star meal service in space, but a look at some of the major space food experiments conducted over the past few years can give us a sneak peek at what lies ahead.

1. Cookies In Space

A chocolate chip cookie was baked aboard the International Space Station in December 2019 using Zero ... [+] G Kitchen's microgravity oven.

DoubleTree by Hilton has long touted freshly baked cookies as its signature welcome amenity. Now, the company has teamed up with Zero G Kitchen to create Cookies In Space, a joint venture in which the DoubleTrees famous chocolate chip cookies recently became the first food to be baked in space.

Although baking cookies may hardly seem like advanced science, baking food in space is no trivial feat. Traditional ovens rely on convection - the natural process where hot air rises and cool air falls - which does not occur in the absence of gravity. Additionally, being in microgravity presents the extra challenge of keeping food stationary while it cooks. All of this must be accomplished on a limited power supply so as not to blow a fuse on the ISS. To do so, Zero Gs oven uses a silicone frame to hold objects in place during baking. The ovens cylindrical heating coils surround the food at the center of the ovens chamber and rise to temperature more slowly than a normal oven to accommodate ISS power constraints.

Five chunks of dough in silicone pouches were sent to the space station, awaiting baking in Zero G ... [+] Kitchen's oven.

Zero Gs oven was built in partnership with Nanoracks, the company responsible for commercial plug-and-play payload interfaces aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The oven is the first of a series of appliances that Zero G intends to develop as part of its space kitchen, which the company states will eventually include a refrigerator, blender, slow cooker, and more.

The oven and supplies were launched to the ISS aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft in November, where they were received by the ISS crew and used to bake cookies in late December. The finished cookies were returned to Earth with SpaceXs CRS-18 mission earlier this month, where they were be analyzed to inform future attempts at baking in space.

2. ISSPresso and Space-Certified Coffee Cups

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti takes a sip of espresso from the zero-gravity cup.

For many adults, theres nothing quite like starting out the day with a fresh cup of Joe. However, being in space can get in the way of this morning ritual, since until recently astronauts were forced to consume all liquids from plastic bladders to prevent them from floating away in the microgravity environment.

Specially-designed 3D-printed Space Cups are being used on the International Space Station.

In 2008, Oregon-based company IRPI teamed up with NASA astronaut Don Pettit in search of a better solution. The team came up with a coffee cup design that exploited the effects of surface tension and wetting angles to recreate the experience of drinking from a mug on Earth. When Italian company Lavazza launched a modified version of its expresso machine (dubbed ISSPresso) to the Station in 2015, IRPI saw a perfect opportunity to test out its design. The company flew 6 of its cups as part of NASAs 2015 Capillary Beverage Experiment, and upon successful checkout by the ISS crew, the cups officially became space-qualified hardware.

3. Vostok Space Beer

Unlike Ninkasi Beer (made with yeast that traveled to space back in 2015) or Bridgeport Brewings ... [+] The First IPA (craft beer that was launched into space in early 2018), Vostok is the first beer designed for consumption in space.

Like having a morning coffee, sitting down for a cold beer is one of the most universal experiences known to humanity. However, beer bottles suffer from the same problems as coffee cups in microgravity: The open top bottles cannot prevent beer from floating away haphazardly. Additionally, gases and liquids do not separate in microgravity, the bubbles in beer tend to stick together and form one huge ball of gas surrounded by a shell of beer, leading to an uncomfortable (albeit harmless) condition called wet burp among many who ingest it.

In 2010, the founders of Australian companies 4 Pines Brewing Company and Saber Astronautics began collaborating on a beer that could surmount these problems. To reduce the products potential to cause wet burp, carbonation was reduced while other flavors were strengthened to complement the drinks smaller bubbles. The bottle was then fitted with an insert similar to a rocket fuel tank, utilizing a shaped insert to wick fuel in the direction of the outlet valve.

Inside the space beer bottle

In 2018, the team launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund testing and flight certification for their product. The campaign was unfortunately unsuccessful, raising only 3% of its $1M USD goal. Nonetheless, the team has pressed forward with its efforts, which have included 2 crewed parabolic flights to validate the bottles usability.

4. NASAs VEGGIE Experiment

A picture of Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage growing in a NASA Veggie unit.

As depicted in The Martian, one of the greatest challenges associated with long-duration space missions is the difficulty of obtaining food in space. For most of the space programs history, all food consumed by astronauts has been packaged and shipped in from Earth. The lack of direct sunlight in most space habitats and the scarcity of water away from Earth present significant challenges in implementing a space-based crop-growing infrastructure.

Although growing crops on Earth allows humans to continue following processes that are well understood, the price-per-pound of launching cargo (currently just under $30,000 USD per pound using a SpaceX Dragon capsule) into orbit prevents humans from expanding its long-term presence in space using these methods. The ISS program currently costs NASA between $3 and $4 billion USD per year to sustain a maximum of 6 people on orbit, and a large portion of these costs is attributable to the cargo missions used to resupply the Space Station with food and other astronaut provisions. For the industry to reduce costs enough to make space tourism profitable, a more sustainable method of food production is needed on orbit.

In the early 2000s, NASA began testing out potential solutions using its Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE). The deployable aquaponic plant growth unit is capable of producing salad-type crops using its integrated lighting and nutrient delivery system, and relies on the ISS cabin environment for temperature control and carbon dioxide supply. In addition to supplementing the Stations food supply with fresh vegetables, the VEGGIE unit has the potential to produce mental health benefits associated with recreational gardening.

As of January 2020, 4 VEGGIE experiments have been launched to the ISS. Though no results have been released to the public regarding the psychological benefits of the unit, experiments continue to measure the effect of lighting, fertilizer, and environmental conditions on the quality of crops produced.

As these experiments continue in orbit, researchers continue to examine the effect of food on both individual happiness and group dynamics. While the psychological effects of eating in space have yet to be quantified, facilities such as the NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) have conducted initial ground-based observations on the benefits of freshly prepared group meals during long-term confinement. Some preliminary research has shown that individuals who consumed food they liked experienced improved morale and productivity, and that groups who prepared meals together experienced improved team cohesion.

The participants of 2015's 8 month HI-SEAS mission.

Although not all of the findings of space analog research are directly applicable to space tourists, it is clear that the quality of ones meals has a direct effect on satisfaction with ones living conditions. As humanity expands its presence beyond Earth, care must be taken to ensure that human factors are not ignored in the design of everyday experiences. If new technologies must be developed to accommodate human preferences, investments should be made accordingly years ahead of the technologys planned use.

The next decade will undoubtedly be a defining moment for space tourism, and commercial spaceflight companies will be forced to make an important decision: Will space tourism be a luxury only in price, or also in quality of passenger experience?

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A Freshly Cooked Meal In Space? It Could Happen Sooner Than You Think. - Forbes