Astronaut Chef Redefines Cooking on High

[mickw]

Astronaut Sandra Magnus is headed back to Earth on the space shuttle Discovery after months at the International Space Station, where she dreamt up new ways to cook in zero gravity.

Magnus is wrapping up a 4 1/2-month mission as a space station flight engineer. During work hours, she served as part of the station's three-person Expedition 18 crew to keep the outpost running and perform science. But she filled her time off with experiments, including how to actually cook in space.

"You know, the trick is duct tape and zip lock bags for everything," Magnus, 44, told SPACE.com in a recent interview as she prepared to leave the station. "You can do anything with that."

More:  http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090327-sts119-magnus-return.html

[Rick]

Indian scientists have been tasked with tackling a mission-critical part of their country's plan to get a man into orbit by 2015: Just how to cook up a decent space curry.

According to the Times, military boffins from the Defence Food Research Laboratory face considerable culinary challenges in presenting traditional dishes suitable for zero-grav consumption. The lab's director, A. S. Bawa, told the paper the fundamental problem was that spicy nosh "can be hard to digest in zero gravity".

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/27/space_curry/