Cooking in space: current situation, needs, and perspectives

Abstract

The current needs for food in space missions are restricted to the time limits of supplying the International Space Station (ISS) and it can be covered by preparation/processing/packaging of food on earth. However, future long-duration space missions (e.g. to Mars) will require to perform cooking under space conditions. The main aspect of these conditions is reduced gravity. In the present work, at first, the ways of achieving low-gravity conditions on earth are presented. It appears that there is little possibility to use these ways effectively to perform long-enough cooking tests in low gravity, with ISS being currently the only reliable alternative. The possible problems for conventional types of cooking in low gravity are discussed at a fundamental level and potential remedies are proposed.