>> I would definitely consider
space food
as its own cuisine.
On Earth, cuisines are created
when people from a region
use generations or wisdom
to flavor, to prepare
and preserve the food.
And because of unique
challenges we're facing
for space food,
like we need to meet
the safety standard,
we need to meet
the nutritional standard
and the food need to be able
to work with
a microgravity environment.
I think we formed
our own cuisine.
My name's Xulei Wu.
I'm a food scientist,
by training, working in
the Space Food System
Laboratory.
We create and produce
space food for
various space programs.
I'm the food system manager,
so I work with our team
and also our counterparts
outside of the food lab
to ensure a timely delivery
of the space food
to support
International Space Station
and the very soon
Artemis 2 mission.
Many people,
when they hear "space food",
they will be like, "Yuck."
But actually many of
our food product tastes
pretty good despite like,
the need to be low-sodium
and also need to meet
the safety requirement.
They're actually tasting
pretty good.
Food is very important.
Food will provide the nutrition
the astronaut would need
for their health
and performance.
Food also provides
a critical mental well-being
to our crew members.
Even on the ground
we gathered,
we're celebrating
with the food.
That's even so,
when they're so far away
from home.
Because they're so far away
from home,
that's why it's very important
to send the food
that will be shelf stable
for a long time.
On the International
Space Station Standard Menu,
there are over 200 different
food and beverage items
that we supply.
We do provide a crew
food session training
to crew members.
Once they are assigned
for a flight,
they will come in
to try all the food
that we provide
on the standard menu.
We're trying to make this easy
for crew members,
so we break into
ten different categories.
So in those categories,
we have breakfast,
where they can find
scrambled eggs,
where they can find
granola and blueberry,
where they can find
their own cereal.
And then for lunch and dinner,
then we break down
to like a vegetable and soup,
meat and fish,
um, side dishes.
And then we also have snack,
and the dessert for crew member
to choose as a well.
Among the space food we send to
International Space Station.
There are several major types.
The first type,
those green pouches.
Those will thermal stabilize
the food.
They're just like
the canned foods you can find
in grocery store.
This type of food
utilize high heat
to make the product sterile,
so that they do not
require refrigeration
or freezing.
They can heat up or eat as is
by just opening the pouch.
The other type of food,
which I love, this is
a freeze dried product.
Freeze drying is a process
to remove most of the water
out of the food
by removing the water
out of the food.
The weight becomes super light
and once they crew member
adds the water back
before consumption,
it will reconstitute
and represent the texture
of this product again.
So the food we provide
right now to our astronauts
we consider as ready to eat.
So that means the crew member,
all they need to do
is either put this pouch
inside of the food warmer
to heat it up
if they prefer it's warm,
or they add water--
if it's a freeze dried product,
they will need
to add water first,
and then they can heat up
or let it hydrate
for 10, 15 minutes
before they open up
and they eat.
In the microgravity environment,
water is supercritical.
Water acts like a glue
bonding the food together.
And thanks to
the surface tension of water,
that allows the crew member
to open the pouch carefully
and use a spoon
to scoop the food
and deliver that
into their mouths?
Definitely a lot of
consideration goes into
what recipes to create.
First of all,
we want the food
to be tasting good.
If the food
not tasting good,
then no crewmember
would want to eat that.
And secondly,
we also want to bring
nutritional benefits
to crew members.
So we're looking at
what's already available
in the current food system
and what's lacking.
My favorite part of this job
is really to serve
a large purpose
that I'm part of the effort
to support
human space exploration,
so that one day
we can go back to the moon,
and one day we're going
to make our presence on Mars.
As we're preparing for those
longer exploration missions,
we're in the process
to evaluate the shelf life
because for the longer
exploration mission,
it needs longer shelf life.
Right now, for
International Space Station,
we're targeting
three year shelf life.
For Mars mission,
we're targeting five
to seven years shelf life.
So our food scientists
are working
to see what approach
we can put in to ensure
the food will still be good
and nutritious,
five to seven years after.
Microgravity creates
its own unique challenges.
Salt and pepper.
At home,
that's just on our table,
a salt and pepper shaker.
There's also crumbs.
They could just float.
On earth, they just
fall onto the table,
fall onto to the ground.
In microgravity,
they can get into equipment,
mess with equipment.
Therefore, we have to
dissolve the salt in water
and send this
as a liquid salt to be used
in the microgravity environment.
I become interested
in food science.
Two reasons,
one is, when I need to
determine which major to choose,
I find it's very difficult
because I like
multiple disciplines.
I love physics,
I love chemistry,
I like biology.
It's a hard time.
At the same time,
there was a big scandal
broke out in China.
Many baby infant
formula companies,
they adulterated the formula
with a chemical that actually
could cause kidney stones
and the kidney damaged.
That's kind of the trigger
that I realized,
I want to study more
about food safety.
And food science
happened to be
a discipline that involves
multiple different disciplines
in that process.
I have never thought
about landing a job at NASA
because I was born
and raised in China
as a first generation immigrant.
Being able to work at NASA
is something for me
like a too good to be true.
I don't consider myself
very smart.
I'm very hard-working,
and I think it's important
to discover
what is your true interest,
your true passion,
what subject do you
love the most.
And then connect this
to a career
that is making a contribution
to the society.
If you run into some issues
and doubt yourself
to be the right fit
for the STEM field,
my advice to you would be
it's okay to have
a difficult time.
Give it a try.
Give it a shot.
Because as long as
you work hard enough,
you will find out
what you're truly fit for.
Don't doubt yourself,
you don't know
what's your true potential.
Go explore. Go test it out.