Food on the Moon, ...and would-be Russian food on lunar missions Options

[karolp]

The menus in the Apollo program are rather well known, as I do recall 73 postitions (or was it Gemini?). However, I was wondering whether anything has actually been eaten by the astronauts ON the Moon and when (with regard to time of mission or time from waking up - I assume humans have slept on the Moon as well).

Also, I was wondering what the Russian space menus are (and were) and what would the Russian guy from LOK 1 eat if it did land on the Moon.

Finally, as other nations are considering manned missions to Moon (China, India?, Europe?) what could they eat? I kind of remember the pilot of Shenzhou eating rice in orbit...

[MaxSt]

I kind of remember the pilot of Shenzhou eating rice in orbit...

Yeah, they said it's not easy to use chopsticks there...

[dvandorn]

The very first thing eaten by a human being while on the lunar surface was a communion wafer, eaten by Buzz Aldrin during a communion ceremony he held for himself about two hours after the landing.

All of the astronauts who landed on the Moon ate at least a little something while they were on the surface. Meals were very similar to those in the CSM, but some of the items -- like the tomato bisque soup, the beef and potatoes, etc. -- that you rehydrated with hot water aboard the CSM were only able to mixed with cold water in the LM. (The LM couldn't afford the weight of a heater simply to heat water.) So they weren't all that great.

Now, these were meals taken inside the LM. On the last several flights (the J missions), there was also a fruit "jerky" snack placed inside the suit, attached to the neck ring, that a moonwalking astronaut could munch on while out walking on the surface. This went along with in-suit drink bags, which offered a quick drink of water or reconstituted fruit drink to a thirsty moonwalker. The drink bags had been provided in-suit since Apollo 13, although the Apollo 14 crew were the first to be able to use them while walking on the lunar surface.

-the other Doug

[karolp]

Thank you for such an extensive answer. I have also replayed the Polish podcast on my mp3 and it actually mentioned 72 positions in the menu and not on Gemini but on Skylab.

Now I only wonder what the solitary cosmonaut landing with the Russian LK lunar lander would chew on after touchdown. I believe this question may be answered by extrapolating the menus on Soyuz missions flown at the time. Or maybe even by accessing some documents that state the planned LK menu overtly. Unfortunately my access to recently unclassified Russian materials is rather limited.

[Bob Shaw]

Not food on the Moon, but drink - courtesy of Alan Stern:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12953794/

It seems that, not content with attacking an innocent comet, quietly wandering in the depths of space, mankind now intends to attack the Moon with, er, a comet...

Makesyerfink, dunnit?

Bob Shaw

[karolp]

Not really a comet but a chunk of ice nicely wrapped in a thermojacket. It says such chunks of water ice were already launched on Saturn 1, the so called "Project High Water". Any more info on the Saturn 1 shipments? Were they huge? What happened to them after orbital decay? What did that do to our atmosphere?

[Bob Shaw]

Not really a comet but a chunk of ice nicely wrapped in a thermojacket. It says such chunks of water ice were already launched on Saturn 1, the so called "Project High Water". Any more info on the Saturn 1 shipments? Were they huge? What happened to them after orbital decay? What did that do to our atmosphere?

Karolp:

And what is a comet but a chunk of ice wrapped in a thermojacket od dusty grains? Or not, depending on who you're listening to!

Project High Water didn't dump ice into the upper atmosphere, but water which had been used as ballast during Saturn 1 sub-orbital test flights, and which froze into clouds of ice crystals. For details see: http://www.astronautix.com/sites/capllc34.htm

Bob Shaw

[ljk4-1]

Alan Bean enjoyed the first spaghetti dinner on the Moon during Apollo 12.

http://utopia.utexas.edu/articles/alcalde/bean.html

http://www.venganza.org/

[dvandorn]

From all reports, Al Bean ate spaghetti *everywhere*. On his Skylab flight, he had spaghetti every fourth day, and he really wanted more. Mike Collins even mentions Al Bean's addiction to spaghetti in his book, "Carrying the Fire."

Even amongst all those down-home jet pilots, though, it fell to North Carolinian Charlie Duke to get the NASA dieticians to put freeze-dried grits on the Apollo menu. Apollo 16 was the first time the Apollo food packs included grits. (Not only did Duke enjoy the grits, he ended up eating most of John and Ken's, too... )

-the other Doug

[ljk4-1]

A brief history of American space food pre-Space Shuttle era:

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/astro...od-history.html

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/attm/nojs/food.1.html

Photos of space food:

http://www.jasonproject.org/expeditions/ja...space_food2.jpg

Food for Project MOL:

http://www.brooks.af.mil/History/space.html#lab

Russian bread from Mir:

http://www.deutsches-museum.de/ausstell/da...um/e_nahrun.htm

[ljk4-1]

AEROSPACE FOOD TECHNOLOGY

A Conference held at the University of South Florida

Tampa, Florida

April 15-17, 1969

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-202/sp202.htm

[karolp]

Thank you for your great answers. I have just come up with another issue regarding food on the Moon. Namely, you know... the final stage. Did they take the "excrements" with them as they departed or did they dispose them off on their way back to Earth (which point?) or did they... leave another, well, man-made object on the Moon exposing it to countless micrometeorite strikes? Any official info on that? Did we contaminate the Moon with human bio-material already?

[ermar]

Not quite on the Moon, but interesting nonetheless!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/science/...tml?ref=science

[dvandorn]

Thank you for your great answers. I have just come up with another issue regarding food on the Moon. Namely, you know... the final stage. Did they take the "excrements" with them as they departed or did they dispose them off on their way back to Earth (which point?) or did they... leave another, well, man-made object on the Moon exposing it to countless micrometeorite strikes? Any official info on that? Did we contaminate the Moon with human bio-material already?

You guessed it -- they left their urine and feces on the Moon, in appropriate containers. They also left the leftovers of their meals, which also contain biomatter. (One comment Gene Cernan made, during a depressurization of his Lunar Module Challenger, was that he saw a piece of bread fly out the open hatch. IIRC, later on, he saw this piece of bread on the ground and thought it was a highly unusual rock. He even went so far as to bag it as a sample before Schmitt, who was chuckling mightily under his breath, told him not to bother...)

-the other Doug

[RNeuhaus]

You guessed it -- they left their urine and feces on the Moon, in appropriate containers. They also left the leftovers of their meals, which also contain biomatter. (One comment Gene Cernan made, during a depressurization of his Lunar Module Challenger, was that he saw a piece of bread fly out the open hatch. IIRC, later on, he saw this piece of bread on the ground and thought it was a highly unusual rock. He even went so far as to bag it as a sample before Schmitt, who was chuckling mightily under his breath, told him not to bother...)

-the other Doug

The disposal containers for everything (Food, one and two) were inside of LM or they were put away on the Moon surface? All LM after the coupling with the CM, are left to drop into the Moon along with their disposals? I seems like that any disposal would NOT be left on the way from Moon to Earth. Otherwise they will be hitting on Earth

Rodolfo