SPACE MEALS

Space Pizza Baked "Outside"

Nice fresh, hot Pizza in space.   Should be a cinch right? 

Let's say we're in orbit and we're hungry.  We're not looking for Chicago-style Pizza up here.  We'd settle for a couple of DiGiorno pies from the local Ralph's.  

Just rocket 'em up on the next resupply ship and we'll throw them in the oven on the ISS.  25 minutes later we're all set...

This sounds good.  In fact its an oft-expressed dream of astronauts to have a decent slice of pizza (or a cheese burger) while aboard the ISS or shuttles.  But of course, *there are no ovens or grills up there and microwave contraptions and/or boiled water just don't bake a decent pie.  

Not wanting to put the ISS through an expensive remodeling job involving marble counter-tops and Viking stoves, we at spacemeals.com say that the pizza-in-space dream whould be made a reality another way.  Perhaps we should consider baking pizza (and grilling burgers) outside the ISS and the shuttles.

After all, when you are exposed to the sun up there in orbit you are apparently facing temperatures of 123 Degrees Celsius or about 250 Degrees Fahrenheit.  250F is, in fact, ideal for slow cooking as one might do with Barbecued Ribbs (Another idea! ...MMM...Space Ribs...)

In the case of pizza, we'll just design a small, sealed solar oven that protects food contents against solar radiation while --if necessary -- baking them at upwards of 400 degrees farhenheit using a relector apparatus. It shouldn't weight more than a couple of pounds at most and we can clean it out and use it on the next mission.

We load the tethered "oven" with a few pizza pies and release it to "drag" along-side the ISS/Shuttles, outside in the orbital sunlight for an hour or so -- the "orbital oven" (I like that name)  will  have remote thermometers and remote internal cameras so we know we aren't burning the crust.  Then when the pizza's done, we reel it back in.   Once we get it out of the air-lock, it's pizza time.   

We are totally serious, do not laugh! 

(*Correction:  As of July 28th 2009, I learned that the ISS does in fact have an oven of sorts enough to accomodate a small 6 inch diameter pizza pie.   An article called, "What Do Astronauts Eat in Space," by Claire Suddath and publishd in Time Magazine on July, 20 2009 mentioned this and that The Pizza Hut Corporation had made a go of delivering pan-style, 6 inch, designed-for-space "Pizzas" to the ISS aboard  Russian built Proton rockets.   I don't know if the fact that I missed this news in May, 2001 indicates a poor investment in "post" research on my part (it does) or that Pizza Hutt's space-pizza-delivery-campaign met with a rather muted public response (it might have);  maybe everybody in the U.S. was still in shock that George W. Bush was somehow occupying the Oval Office at the time? ;]  Anyway, grilling/baking in outer space using solar radiation while in Low Earth Orbit is another possible means to cook in space  --  that concept, which I also floated in this post -- is something I will proudly stand by :P ).

NASA: "Water From This System Cleaner Than U.S. Tap Water"

We think the above is an impressive statement for NASA to make considering that the "water" in question was recycled from astronaut urine!  

On May 21, 2009, NASA gave Astronauts permission for the first time to sample the water produced by the "Water Recovery System" -- a 250 million dollar apparatus delivered to the International Space Station ("ISS") last November. 

The aforementioned "System" recovers water from urine (itself typically 95% water) deposited by crew members in the "Waste and Hygiene Compartment Toilet" on the ISS.  And it also recovers moisture from the Station's atmosphere and cooking and bathing waste-water.

Before you write off this whole concept as "recycling-gone-too-far,"

you should keep in mind the current costs associated with human space-flight.  

Some suggest that it costs roughly $4000 U.S. a kilogram (2.2lbs) to convey supplies to the ISS by unmanned Russian "Progress" cargo ships (The Progress apparently represents the cheapest means of conveying supplies to the ISS currently available).  

Since 1 gallon of drinking water apparently weighs approximately 4 kilograms, it would appear -- at least to me -- that delivering a single gallon of water using the aforementioned basis represents a cost of $16,000.  And as any active, earth-bound person might reasonably surmise,  1 gallon of drinking water is what a hard-working astronaut might ingest in just a single day on the ISS!

Multiply this "gallon" by the number of astronauts and other space-farers aboard the ISS and again by the number of days each is on the station and you might safely assume that millions of dollars are likely entailed just in the process of conveying water to the Station each year.

Obviously a Water Recovery System that enables astronauts to safely reclaim and recycle the water they typically excrete, exhale, lose in sweat evaporation or as part of the process of cooking or bathing represents a pronouncedly more cost-effective use of a extremely scarce and expensive liquid resource. 

And it doesn't hurt that NASA affirms that "Water From This System (is) Cleaner Than U.S. Tap Water."

*

Now, we here at spacemeals.com have to ask:  Are there mass applications for the Water Recovery System down here on Earth?  That is, will the system become as much a part of the fabric of life on the planet as say Aluminum Foil -- another product of human space flight?   

Frankly, we don't quite visualize a situation 50 years in the future in which every household on the planet is able to recover and recycle its own waste-water using this technology.  

But you never know.   Water Recovery Systems safely incorporated in to house-hold plumbing may become no more expensive than the average kitchen stove today; in fact, the big expense of utilizing such a system would be in the monthly fee you'd presumably pay a service to monitor the system's filtering efficiency;  

We might also see closed-loop, personal water recovery systems by that time functioning as a more elegant version of Frank Herbert's Dune Still Suits, "wear" Herbert conceived of that might be able to keep a user hydrated for weeks without him/her ever actually needing to ingest additional water.  

Or we might see a personal recovery system that allows some sort of intravenous delivery of water that removes the need for the drinking-process itself.  Or even a  system that integrates a means by which water is not only recovered from a users waste, but also simultaneously from the moisture present in the surrounding atmosphere;  users of such a system might effectively never need to take on additional water by way of water fountains or consumption of bottled water, water-based drinks, container drinks or water-containing food).

It does seem more probable that in the near future we'd see water recovery systems used on Earth by military personnel dispatched to remote locations or by people living in desert or disaster-areas where water is scarce or otherwise compromised in some manner.   We might also expect to see RV buyers and commercial, vehicle-based businesses install on-board water recovery systems too. 

Also probable might be more "commercial," "pop-culture" applications of NASA's Water Recovery System.  Consider the following scenarios:  

• Donald Trump decides to recover and recycle the water from his own urine.  He then has it added to storage containers of his Trump Ice Natural Spring Water and names the new version of the water, Trump Ice "Little Trumpster" -- "Little Trumpster" being a nick-name he has allegedly given his pe...(nevermind).  Trump advertises "Little Trumpster" using the slogan "Drink Me, Be Me!";  It retails for $100 per 16 oz bottle, yet still sells briskly.  (Edit June 14, 2009:  We think it's possible that Trump might instead use a more conservative name for the water, say Trump Ice "Signature."  And he might favor a different slogan such as, "It Made It Through Me, So You Know It's The Best!"  (TM)    

• Clairol introduces a line of shampoo for teen girls that is made with water "Recovered and Recycled From The Jonas Brothers Band's Tour Bus Toilets."    The product generates sales greater than all other hair care and beauty products combined.  Clairol uses its new-found shampoo wealth to buy Lockheed Martin.