(College Station)—Astronauts in space will soon be dining on lasagna, crawfish etouffee, teriyaki beef steak and other food items made in Aggieland.
Developing tastier and more nutritious foods is the goal of a new research and production partnership on the Texas A&M University campus. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Wyle Laboratories and NASA recently announced plans for the venture that will produce ready-to-eat foods for future space flight missions.
More than 30 food items will be produced in College Station for the astronauts, who are fed breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks during missions.
A food sterilization system at the National Center for Electron Beam Food Research, an Experiment Station research component at Texas A&M, will help scientists discover new methods of minimizing nutrition losses during processing.
A variety of high-quality packaged meals will also be produced for extended space missions, researchers said. Food produced in College Station will be used on the International Space Station and throughout the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's human spaceflight program.
"This partnership opens the door for breakthrough discoveries not only in food produced for spaceflight missions, but for overall food safety," said Elsa Murano, Experiment Station director and vice chancellor for agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M. "The science used in this research could very well be transferred into new food production techniques, ensuring a safer food supply for consumers."
Relatively few facilities can produce food in the special thermostabilized pouches used in space, so foods developed at Texas A&M will be readily available for NASA's human spaceflight program.
A commercial retort system will help produce the thermostabilized food, which unlike traditional freeze-dried foods already contains water. The retort system removes pathogens so the packaged food is sterile and can be used over a long period of time, scientists said.
"(All the) astronauts have to do it is heat it up," said Lori Neish, a NASA-Wyle Laboratories food scientist who will be working on the research project in College Station. "That's important for the International Space Station and long-duration missions. The astronauts tend to get fatigued or tired of the texture of freeze-dried items. The thermostablized items they do not (grow tired of) and tend to add variety."
NASA's menus include 200 different foods and beverages used aboard space flights; about 40 percent are thermostabilized items. The food will be processed from start to finish in College Station, then sent to NASA before heading into space. At meal times, astronauts will place the food in a "suitcase warmer."
"Imagine a suitcase that has a heat plate on both sides," Neish said. "You put a pouch (of food) in there and wait five to 10 minutes until heated and pull it out."
The research activities also will involve students at Texas A&M.
"In terms of what it does for our graduate and undergraduate training, it provides an unparalleled platform to get hands-on experience in food processing and unit operations," said Suresh Pillai, electron beam center director and Experiment Station Faculty Fellow.
Some of the first food items ready for space missions are expected to be produced in February, researchers said. 