Watch these future moon travelers test their space kitchen

It might be cool to be an astronaut, but life in orbit has its downsides. The food, for example, will be somewhat limited compared to what you can enjoy back on terra firma, though it’s true that over the years, scientists have found ways to broaden the food options for astronauts.

While early space food was limited to unappetizing tubes of slop and bland freeze‑dried powders, astronauts can now enjoy varied, flavorful menus that can even resemble regular meals on Earth.

Improvements such as advanced freeze‑drying, thermostabilized pouches, food warmers, and the use of fresh produce on the International Space Station (ISS) mean that astronauts can now enjoy numerous items, including culturally familiar dishes tailored to their tastes and also their long‑duration health needs.​

With the first crewed lunar mission in five decades set to take place next year, a couple of the Artemis II astronauts have offered some insight into how the menu is being prepared for their 10-day trip around the moon.

“The food the four astronauts will eat will play a key role in maintaining their health and ensuring they can perform their mission objectives to the best of their abilities,” NASA said in a message accompanying a video (top) featuring NASA astronaut Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, both of whom will be flying around the moon next year.

The food prep has been going on at NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory, which supports the development and production of space food, menus, packaging, and food-related hardware for all NASA programs, including Artemis.

The video shows Koch and Wiseman testing lots of dishes and also practicing how to use spacecraft equipment to rehydrate and warm up meals, with much of the training taking place inside a full-size Orion mockup at Johnson’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility.

During the mission, the crew will use a potable water dispenser to rehydrate their chosen food and drink packages and a briefcase-style food warmer for warming them up, NASA explained.

The Artemis II mission is designed to confirm the operability of the Orion following its uncrewed test flight in 2022, serving as a crucial crewed systems checkout for future deep-space exploration. The highly anticipated voyage also paves the way for the Artemis III mission, which will put the first NASA astronauts on the moon since the final Apollo mission in 1972.