Ella Scott
The extensive menu for the Artemis II astronauts is specifically designed for the quartet’s moon quest, with condiments, freeze-dried meals, and ready-to-eat items being prioritised.
On 1 April, three Americans and a Canadian Space Agency astronaut buckled into the Orion spacecraft for what will be a ten-day lunar flyby mission, dubbed Artemis II.
Nasa’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glober, and Christina Koch, as well as Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, successfully departed from the Kennedy Space Center and are currently set to fly by the moon on 6 April.
The journey - the first time that humans have travelled to the vicinity of the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 - is being fuelled by a 180+ item menu, according to Nasa.
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This includes an array of hot sauces, sweet items, and savoury favourites, the space agency revealed last month.
Nasa said in a notice that all the food selected for the space mission is ‘designed to support crew’s health and performance’.
“Food selections are developed in coordination with space food experts and the crew to balance calorie needs, hydration, and nutrient intake while accommodating individual crew preferences.”
There is no fresh food on board the vessel as there isn’t a fridge. This meant that experts had to consider shelf life when choosing edible items.
Moreover, products that are easy to prepare and consume in microgravity, alongside those that don't produce crumbs, have been prioritised.
The four astronauts, who will remain on board the space cruiser until they return to Earth around 10 April, will be given scheduled breaks to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Two to three days’ worth of meals will be packed into one container, providing ‘flexibility for meal selection during the mission’, as per Nasa.
Unfortunately, beverage options are limited due to ‘upmass constraints’.
This means the astronauts will only be able to drink two flavoured beverages per day, which may include coffee.
On 3 March, the American space agency revealed that Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen would be able to feast on 189 unique menu items during their trip.
These include vegetables such as cauliflower, spicy green beans and butternut squash, as well as punnets of macaroni and cheese and broccoli au Gratin.
58 tortillas have been packed alongside couscous, wheat flatbread, granola, nuts like almonds and cashews, vegetable quiche, and breakfast sausages.
Condiment-wise, the team can choose from five different hot sauces and a savoury spicy mustard.
Or they can go sweet with maple syrup, chocolate spread, strawberry jam, honey, cinnamon, and peanut and/or almond butter.
Those with a sweet tooth can also dive into packs of cookies and candy-coated almonds, or indulge in cobbler, cake, and chocolate.
Tropical fruit and mango salads are also available to munch.
With the team being limited to two fun beverages a day, they will need to choose wisely.
There are ten different drinks floating around in space with the foursome right now, including hot options like coffee, cocoa, and green tea.
In addition to lemonade, apple cider, and a pineapple drink, various flavoured smoothies and breakfast substitutions are available.
Social media users have come out in droves to debate the mission menu, with one X user typing: “The food and drink menu for the Artemis II astronauts may look fancy, but up there, nutrition and practicality matter more than taste. Space isn’t a restaurant it’s a lab for survival.”
Another said: “58 tortillas is the real strategy since crumbs can’t clog the vents. But 43 cups of coffee for 10 days? I’d finish that before they even cleared the atmosphere.”
“Honestly this looks better than what I feed myself on Earth,” someone else joked.
A fourth responded: “58 tortillas wouldn’t be enough for me for 10 days.”