This week is going to be a little different! So last weekend I was given a gift by a youth leader who was running a night at the youth group I help out with about stars and space, as she did her degree in astro-physics!
So along with this she brought every one a pack of Astronaut food! I was given a pack of Neapolitan ice cream! This really interested me as I'm a big science geek myself, and as I'm doing dietetics at university food is also an interested in food. In fact my dream would be to design food for space so I was so happy when she gave me the ice cream!
This ice cream is freeze dried, which is the way astronauts have eaten their food aboard space missions since the early Mercury mission right up until NASA's Space missions today!
Now here is the geeky bit (sorry if you think this is boring)...
How is astronaut ice cream freeze-dried?
Freeze drying, or lyophilisation, removes water from the ice cream by lowering the air pressure to a point at which the ice shifts from a solid to a gas! The ice cream is placed in a vacuum chamber and frozen so the water crystallizes. The air pressure is the lowered creating a vacuum, then heat is applied vaporizing the ice. Finally a freezing coil traps the vaporized water!
When my twin sister and I tasted this ice cream we were rather susceptible to whether it would taste anything like ice cream! We were so surprised that it did! As soon as you leave it on your tongue it seems to liquids into a cream, with sweet flavorings. It is very clear when you eat it that it is supposed to be the strawberry, vanilla or chocolate ice cream yet is much sweeter and fake flavored. Yet I'm sure it makes a delightfully tasty treat in the space station!
Find astronaut ice cream here: http://tinyurl.com/q2v39tu
I know this blog has been a bit random but I thought I would share my massive geeky side with you and that it was just interesting!
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Katie xxx
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