Residing in area will not be for the faint of coronary heart. There’s the small danger of getting caught for just a few additional months, the bodily toll of prolonged area journey, and coping with zero gravity. Consuming in area will be significantly difficult, but additionally entertaining.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick lately demonstrated this with one of many world’s hottest condiments–ketchup. Within the video posted to X, Dominick reveals how the ketchup leaks out like water coming from a backyard hose in zero gravity.
Not solely does the ketchup slide out of the nozzle with ease, nevertheless it swimming pools up and makes a “ketchup fort” on his chin. Dominick says it’s both gross or superior, relying on the attention of the beholder.
Tomatoes or tomato-based merchandise like ketchup are not any stranger to the Worldwide Area Station. In late 2023, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio misplaced observe of two rogue tomatoes that had been a part of the eXposed Root On-Orbit Check System (XROOTS) experiment he performed aboard the area station in 2022. This experiment used hydroponic and aeroponic strategies to develop vegetation–no soil required. Studying find out how to plant with out soil could possibly be helpful in different exploratory missions. Tending to gardens in area additionally helps the morale of a number of the astronauts and will help scientists again on Earth develop higher farming strategies.
In 2021, Ketchup large Heinz additionally partnered with astrobiologists to check find out how to enhance ketchup high quality in harsh environmental circumstances like what’s discovered on the Crimson Planet. They created a ketchup on Earth, however with related soil, temperature, and water circumstances on Earth to these discovered on Mars.