Merchandise Research: Space Food

Being an at least semi educational series about space, it only makes sense that some of the merchandise be space food. Though the food that they eat aboard the ship would largely be replicated in my film and therefore very much like regular food, I think people would be interested enough to want to try space food as it currently is.

It was only just over 50 years ago that we were able to get the first object into space (1957 - Sputnik) and the first person went into orbit in 1961 (Gagarin); only 50 years ago. Already space food has developed a lot.

In 1961 Gagarin became the first man in space. For food he ate 3 160g toothpaste tubes of pureed food; 2 pureed meats and one chocolate sauce for dessert. 

In 1962 when America began manned space flight they experimented with various foods to establish what kinds of food would be edible in space. They found that surprisingly, low gravity does not affect digestion or the ability to swallow solid foods as previously thought.

In 1973 with Skylab, refrigerators and freezers were included in order to better preserve more traditional foods. They had foods such as canned meat, bread, biscuits etc. 

In modern day space flight, the primary concern is practicality. Taking into account eating and preparing in low gravity, as well as being well preservable. Otherwise, 'regular' Earth food could be and sometimes is used in space, which is a treat for the astronauts. 

Interestingly, carbonated drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi are used in space. The national space station refrigerators have stocked cans of both for several years. Though consumption of them is not recommended, due to the effect that low gravity has on belching; namely 'wet burps'. 

Space food has been commercialized primarily in China, where it is a popular novelty product. It has also been commercialized in other countries of course. Often in the form of high nutrition bars and pre-prepared food such as meat in sachets.

For my merchandise, I'd like to do a range of both savoury and sweet food in bar and packet form. I'll get the drawings up later!