Meals

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Mini Beef Sandwiches. These are miniature (about 1" square) beef sandwiches on what appears to be rye toast, each about 3/4" thick. The white velco square indicates this finger food snack, flown on Apollo 17, was meant for Jack Schmitt. Image courtesy Novaspace Galleries.

Beef Pot Roast spoonbowl. This was a typical entree aboard moon missions. A freeze-dried meal block would be reconstituted with a hot or cold water gun through the valve at lower right, then after a prescribed time, voila! An astronaut opened the double ziplocks and spooned the food out. This Beef Pot Roast (yum!) was flown onApollo 17. The white velco square indicates this was meant for Jack Schmitt. Image and caption courtesy Novaspace Galleries.

Peach Ambrosia spoonbowl. This was a typical entree or dessert aboard moon missions. A freeze-dried meal block would be reconstituted with a hot or cold water gun through the valve at lower left, then after a prescribed time, voila! An astronaut opened the double ziplocks and spooned the food out. This Peach Ambrosia (yum!) was flown on Apollo 17. Image and caption courtesy Novaspace Galleries.

The Apollo 17 system was modified by the inclusion of shelf-stable ham steak that had been sterilized by exposure to cobalt-60 gamma irradiation (3.7 megarads) The Apollo 17 food system also incorporated a fruit cake that provided complete nutrition in shelf-stable, intermediate-moisture, ready-to-eat form. Both new intermediate-moisture foods proved to be highly acceptable to the crewmen.^[1]

The Apollo food system was continuously improved to keep the astronauts in the best possible physiological condition with a high level of morale. Continuous modifications improved the ease of consumption, stowage weight, and nutrient intake. As far as morale goes, an increased variety of was important, but even more important was improving the quality of individual foods. For example, fruit cocktail was reformulated because the original product became crushed by the effects of atmospheric pressure on the package and it was then difficult to rehydrate.

Gene Cernan creatively using a spoon to eat in microgravity. (AS17-163-24129)

Before an Apollo launch, each prime and backup crewmember evaluated available flight foods and selected the food items he preferred. Then the foods were assembled into nutritionally balanced menus which were reviewed by crewmembers and nutritionists for maximum acceptability within nutritional constraints. Finally, the astronauts were briefed on spacecraft food stowage, preparation, and waste disposal.

The primary mission phases, from the vantage point of food provision, included times during which the crewmen occupied the Command Module (CM) and the Lunar Module (LM), and times when they were being transported in various vehicles from the recovery site to the Space Center in Houston. A contingency food system also was provided to be used if emergency decompression of the space vehicle occurred. Each of these environments presented a different set of constraints and requirements for the food system.

Inflight metabolic balance studies were conducted on the Apollo 16 and 17 missions. These studies imposed unique requirements on the food system for preflight, inflight, and postflight measurements and control of dietary intake .

The initial Apollo inflight food system consisted of two basic food types: (1) lightweight, shelf-stable, dehydrated foods that required rehydration prior to consumption, and (2) ready-to-eat, dehydrated bite-sized foods. Dehydrated foods were selected because of shelf life and because weight was critical in the Apollo vehicle Approximately 80 percent of the weight of fresh food is water; therefore, the removal of water resulted in a substantial reduction of food system weight. As was previously noted, water for rehydration was available as a by-product of fuel cell operation, wherein hydrogen is combined with oxygen to release electrical energy.

Bite-sized, ready-to-eat foods supplemented rehydratable foods for the first Apollo manned flight. These bite sized foods were either dehydrated (moisture less than two percent) or prepared so that water in the product would be bound and, therefore, not available for microbial growth. The latter category is generally referred to as intermediate-moisture food to differentiate it from fresh foods at one extreme and dehydrated food at the other. The intermediate-moisture foods (moisture less than 40 percent) are highly acceptable since they closely approximate the texture of fresh foods and are ready to eat without reconstitution. Even with this combination of foods, however, the range of texture and tastes was fairly limited for early Apollo astronauts, a situation that was gradually rectified throughout the program.

Ron Evans with a pair of surgical scissors in the foreground, during the outbound trip. As Jack mentions in commentary following 115:30:55, Ron lost his scissors sometime before Gene and Jack went down to the lunar surface. To keep him from going hungry while they were gone, they gave him one of their pairs. (AS17-162-24096)

Packaging, like food items themselves, underwent substantial modification during the Apollo Program. Flexible packaging protected each individual portion of food and made handling and consumption easier. A series of redesign cycles finally resulted in a rehydratable food package that had (1) an improved, transparent barrier-film of laminated polyethylene-fluorohalocarbon-polyester-polyethylene; (2) a water injection port consisting of a one-way, spring-loaded valve; and (3) an improved opening that permitted food consumption in weightlessness with a conventional tablespoon.

Cold [283°K (10°C)] and hot [333°K (60°C)] water were available for food preparation. Following water injection with the Apollo water dispenser, the food package was kneaded to rehydrate the food and then opened for consumption. Early packages, shown in figure 1, were fitted with plastic tubes through which rehydrated food was extruded into the mouth. This configuration was changed by the introduction of a spoon-bowl package, pictured in figure 2 and described in greater detail in the following sections.

Bite-sized, ready-to-eat foods were contained in packets made from the same plastic laminate material used for packaging rehydratable foods. These packets were opened simply by cutting with scissors. The food was eaten directly from the package or by use of the fingers.

Ron Evans with a packet of soup (AS17-162-24083) Ron Evans with a packet of soup (AS17-162-24082) Jack Schmitt with spoon. (AS17-163-24130) Jack Schmitt with drink bag. (AS17-163-24134)

Apollo 17 Pantry Stowage items Beverages Qty. Coffee 20 Tea 20 Grape drink 10 Grape punch 10 Contingency beverages R (for contingency use only) Qty. Instant breakfast 15 Orange drink 5 Pineapple orange drink 5 Lemonade 5 Snack Items Qty. Bacon squares (4) IMB 9 Apricot cereal cubes (DB) 6 Brownies (4) IMB 3 Gingerbread (4) IMB 3 Graham crackers (4) 6 Jellied candy IMB 6 Peach ambrosia RSB 3 Pecans (6) IMB 6 Fruit cake WP NC 3 Sugar cookies (4) (DB) 6 Apricots IMB 3 Peaches IMB 3 Pears IMB 3 Chocolate bar IMB 3 Tuna salad spread WP (small cans) 2 Catsup WP 3 Salt packets 6 Accessories Qty. In suit food bar assembly . In suit drinking device . Spoon assembly (2) . Germicidal tablets pouch (42) 1 Germicidal tablets pouch (20) 1 R = Rehydratable NC - Nutrient complete I = Irradiated w/K = Fortified with 10 mEq of potassium DB = Dry bite IMB - Intermediate moisture bite WP = wet pack (thermostabilized) RSB = Rehydratable spoon-bowl

[edit] Apollo 17 Meal Plan

A pair of surgical scissors float in the Command Module during the trip out from Earth. Each of the crewmembers had a pair, which they used to cut open food packages. (AS17-162-24095)

References

1. ↑ Malcolm C. Smith et. al., Apollo Food Technology, Section VI Systems, Chapter 1 Biomedical Results of Apollo, NASA History Office SP-368, Washington, D.C., 1975