While flying China's first spacecraft, the astronaut will enjoy
himself over a rich variety of Chinese food, Xinhua has
learned.
The recipes for the astronauts include rice cooked with nuts,
dates and other delicacies, spicy and sour shredded meat and diced
chicken meat. The astronaut will also serve himself with a drink of
medicinal herbs and tonics after a meal, according to a top space
official.
Su Shuangning, head of the team for developing the astronaut
support system, said that the astronaut will have three meals a day
while flying in the outer space. "We planned the recipes in a
scientific way, in such a way as to ensure that the food will be
nutritious enough for space missions while tasting good," he
added.
The so-called "space food", food consumed by astronauts while in
the outer space, should be limited in quantity and size but highly
nutritious while producing no residue.
"It must suit the astronaut's physiological changes in the
weightless situation," he said, adding that space flight results in
loss of calcium in bones, atrophy of muscles, and a drop in red
blood cell count.
The Chinese astronaut will have a choice of 20 plus types of
food. In their early space flights, Soviet and American astronauts
had liquid or semi-solid food in toothpaste tube-like container,
and ate in a mouth-to-mouth manner.
Astronauts now can eat roughly the same way as when they are on
earth. According to Su, China-made space food is largely in
one-bite size, consisting of meat, fish or dessert. They are coated
with an edible protective covering for the convenience of the
astronaut who can eat one piece at each bite in order not to
produce residue that may keep sputtering in the capsule.
Su also said that Chinese scientists are experimenting with
cultivation of vegetables in space stations that can be eaten
without cooking.
(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2003)
