Irradiate, rehydrate and thermostabilize may not sound like instructions for traditional recipes on Earth, but they are key steps for holiday meals in space.
On Thursday, Nov. 10, NASA’s space food chefs, Vickie Kloeris and Michele Perchonok, will be available from 7 to 9 a.m. EST, to discuss the tricks of their trade during live interviews via satellite from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. Both are available for print and radio interviews throughout the holiday season.
Irradiated smoked turkey, rehydratable mashed potatoes and thermostabalized cranberry sauce are typical treats for space station crews. The chefs will describe station meals and possible menus for future astronauts. Meals for moon missions may not differ much from station fare, but menus for longer journeys to Mars may be quite different. Holiday fare may include home grown meals cultivated from hydroponics’ plant growth chambers built on Martian soil. Sweet potatoes, rice, wheat bread and salad with peanut dressing are a few dishes that could adorn the Martian holiday table.
To interview Kloeris or Perchonok, media should contact the Johnson newsroom at: 281/483-5111. The live interviews will be carried on the NASA TV analog satellite on AMC 6 transponder 5C, located at 72 degrees west longitude, with a downlink frequency of 3800 MHz, vertical polarization. The audio is at 6.8 MHz.
B-roll of holiday space food and animation depicting work on the moon and Mars airs 30 minutes prior to the first live shot and following the last interview. Space food imagery is available on the Web, at:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/presskits/ffs_gallery_sfn.html
