Is Aerospace Food Suitable for "Earth People"?

"Shenzhou VI" launched space food business opportunities

"Shenzhou VI" successfully lifted off, and the grab for the "Shenzhou VI" business opportunity is already turbulent. The degree of white fever is evident in CCTV's advertising competition. The industry chain of the aerospace economy is huge, ranging from energy and steel to food, agricultural products, and toys. A researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology estimates that the size of China's aerospace industry is around 100 billion yuan.

After the "God Five" successfully returned, many foods also dipped in light. Many foods labeled with HACCP system certification (American Astronauts Food Standards) appear on containers in Beijing. The Lao Tang Food, Daihatsu, and Big Three Rings, which are famous for its Qing cuisine, Lao Tang Roast Chicken, have also launched HACCP foods.

However, the real space food involved is relatively narrow. A few days ago, relevant experts introduced the concept of space food: Space food actually refers only to food and drinking water that are dedicated to astronauts performing tasks in space and returning to land for waiting for rescue.

At present, domestic production of space food is almost completely concentrated in Beijing Aerospace City. Its main work is all undertaken by the Beijing Aerospace Medical Engineering Institute. According to relevant sources in the industry, the Shanghai Aerospace Administration has done a lot of work for the “Shenzhou VI” launch. However, at present, Shanghai does not participate in the research of aerospace foods, nor does it have any projects to develop aerospace foods.

Astronauts have already eaten more than 80 varieties of food. The wide variety of menus include delectable rice, curry rice, abalone, fish-flavored pork, kung pao chicken and other specialties of Chinese cuisine, as well as a variety of fish and meat cans. In addition to coffee, juice, and other varieties, table-top beverages also provide instant green tea. And people familiar with the compressed biscuits are into the astronauts' emergency food bags. More than 40 kinds of food in this menu go with the "Shenzhou VI".

As early as the 1970s of the last century, China had already begun the research and development of aerospace foods. Compressed biscuits were the product of Shanghai's aerospace food research at that time. In the past 30 years, compressed biscuits have entered people's daily lives, but the space foods it represents have never been formed.

Astronauts diet hard to "live"

Aerospace foods are lightweight, small and nutritious. On the surface, these properties make aerospace foods competitive. However, the specific aerospace environment has made the astronomer's taste requirements very special, and the absorption and digestion capacity has also been affected. Space food is produced to adapt to these characteristics, and the ground environment may not allow everyone to produce this taste. In other words, space foods developed for space activities also have problems with soil and water, and lands are not necessarily suitable for ordinary people.

In addition to possible taste issues, the research and production requirements for aerospace foods are much more stringent than those for ground foods. Space food is actually a food combination. This combination must provide the most reasonable and most suitable nutrition structure for space life. In addition, in order to ensure the health of astronauts, the quality requirements of food are quite high. This situation has made it more difficult to promote the production of aerospace foods. The development of aerospace foods is even facing the dilemma of no industry. According to an industry insider of Shanghai Aerospace 805, the high content of science and technology in aerospace foods is relatively limited and it is difficult to meet the requirements of industrialization.

Transplant to travel diet may be able to develop

Faced with the current development of space food, we may wish to make bold assumptions. Aerospace foods are in many ways similar to travel foods. The light weight and small size make it easy for the traveler to carry; good nutrition and high quality ensure the safety of travel; the handling is convenient to adapt to the restrictions of travel conditions.

If certain aspects of aerospace foods can be adjusted and transplanted into tourism foods, it will not only change the status quo of aerospace foods, but also enrich the variety of tourism foods and improve food quality. Then, space food will no longer be a foreign object. It will be closer to people's lives. It will only be a matter of time because of the scale and industrialization.