The menu, prepared by a French chef for ESA astronauts, included delicacies such as swordfish, duck with capers and Thai chicken.
When they set out on their 600 km skiing expedition from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, space food was among the 100 kg of luggage stacked on the sledges they pulled behind them. The meals were prepared by the French gourmet house Alain Ducasse Formation (ADF) which is working with ESA to develop healthy and tasty dishes for human space missions.
“This expedition gave us another opportunity to have our space food evaluated by people under stress living in hostile environments similar to those experienced by astronauts,” says Pierre Brisson, head of ESA’s Technology Transfer and Promotion office.
In 2003 ESA gave rally driver Henri Pescarolo several cans of space food to try during the 2003 Dakar Rally. The menu included pasta, squid, duck confit with capers, and rice cake with caramel sauce. “Delicious,” was Pescarolo’s comment, after his ‘space-dinner’ in the Saharan desert at Siwa, Egypt.
Earlier this year, space food was served to the 12 women participating in the ESA/CNES 60-day bed-rest study at the MEDES (French Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology) space clinic in Toulouse. Their reaction was also positive.
Explaining the objective of these test dinners, Brisson, adds: “By trying out the food in hostile environments we can test it for both culinary value and practicality. This helps us improve the products for our astronauts.”
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