Have you ever seen what astronauts eat? Carrying food like the stuff your mom or dad buys at the grocery store is too heavy when you are setting out into space. Instead, astronauts aboard space craft eat dehydrated foods. This means that the water is taken out so that they can conserve both weight and storage space. All they need to do is rehydrate (or add the water back in) and POOF! They have an instant meal.
It sounds easy, but does it taste good? The jury is out as to whether or not you would like to have powdered ice cream or dehydrated pot roast for dinner. But we can pretend to be an astronaut and find out what it is like to make a fun snack by just adding water!
Let’s make some astronaut pudding that is out of this world!
You will need:
- Instant pudding mix
- Powdered milk
- Water
- Quart size zipper storage bags
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cup
- First, measure out 1 TBSP plus 2 tsp of instant pudding mix into the zippered storage bag. If you are making multiple servings, make sure every bag has the same amount of pudding mix.
- Next, you will want to add 1 TBSP plus 2 tsp of powdered milk to the pudding mix. This mixture of dry ingredients is how a meal would look before an astronaut rehydrates it.
- Now the fun part…to your bag add a ½ cup of water and seal the zipper. Mix, squish and squeeze it around with your hands until it is blended and begins to set up a bit.
- When you are ready to have your astronaut dessert, simple cut a corner of your storage bag and squirt it right into your mouth, space style.
Fun facts about astronaut dining:
- Astronauts eat almost all their meals with a spoon
- All food packages use Velcro, which was invented by NASA
- No cookies or bread are on board
- In space, people’s tongues don’t make enough saliva so the astronauts can’t taste mild flavors very well…they prefer spicy or strongly flavored foods instead
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