moon_camp

Astronaut Logbook: A week in the life of an astronaut with Samantha Cristoforetti

Your Mission: Follow Samantha's routine at the ISS for one week and compare her daily tasks to yours. Observe your everyday routine and keep a record of it.

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Day 1: Food - What Samantha ate today…


Food is very important for astronauts to stay healthy in space, and they usually have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They must get all their nutrients in these meals, whilst ensuring they have enough food to last them throughout their mission.

Samantha onboard the ISS with her lunch
Check out Samantha’s diary of what food she ate today:

Eating on the International Space Station is very different than on Earth: we don’t cook! All our food is pre-cooked: sometimes it can be eaten as it is, like nuts, sometimes we just need to warm it up in our little oven, and sometimes we need to add water, because the food is dehydrated.

I get to choose what I eat in space from what is available, there is no strict meal planning, and I get to take some special foods with me from Earth too!

Today I ate mushroom soup, omelette with broccoli, tomatoes, and asparagus – all of those are rehydratable – and some macadamia nuts.

Mushroom soup is one of my favourite foods to eat on the International Space Station. I also have a very good spelt salad.

I really like big salads with plenty of fresh ingredients like tomatoes, mozzarella, cucumbers, nuts, and plenty of olive oil! I wish I could eat them in space, but unfortunately we rarely have fresh food on the space station, so I’ll just have to wait until I’m back on Earth!

– Samantha Cristoforetti

Exercise:

  1. What is Samantha’s favourite food on the ISS? _______________________________________________________________
  2. What is Samantha’s favourite food on Earth? _______________________________________________________________
  3. Why can’t Samantha have her favourite food from Earth in space? _______________________________________________________________
  4. Can you think of another food that astronauts may not have in space? _______________________________________________________________
  5. What meal would you like to make for an astronaut, and why? _______________________________________________________________

Day 1: Food - What I ate today…


Staying healthy and eating a balanced diet is very important for astronauts on board the International Space Station, but also on Earth.

Learn more about the types of food on the International Space Station.
Exercise:

  1. What food did you eat today? _______________________________________________________________
  2. What is your favourite food? _______________________________________________________________
  3. If you were an astronaut, would you eat the same food? _______________________________________________________________
  4. How could you package the food, so it would last longer in space? _______________________________________________________________
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