Queal in Space!

Wow, it’s finally happening…Queal is going to space!

When?

On April 8th, 2016, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will be taking off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the 8th operational cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. The flight will be conducted under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Launch time: 2043 GMT (4:43 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

Why?

On space flights, a crew normally takes along dried foods. In the ISS they eat everything from beef jerky to re-hydrated and heated tacos.

Astronaut Cris Hadfield says he misses the texture of ‘real food’ and that everything has a ‘baby food’ feel to it. But they get by.

No more asperges explosions!

Because the food is usually eaten within a few months and because the psychological effects of food are important, ESA, NASA and many other organisations try and make food taste as good as possible whilst keeping it as light as possible.

This becomes exponentially more difficult if you want to take food along to Mars, every gram counts. That is why they contacted Queal; they needed something that is as light as possible. In other words, they needed as much nutrition as possible in each gram.

Yes, you won’t have that bite that Chris Hadfield is looking for, but that isn’t the main concern. You will have food that is durable, nutritious and actually very tasty!

The ISS will be the testing ground for Queal, and future missions to Mars will be Queal-fed!

Meet the crew!

Commander Timothy Kopra and his crew will be eating Queal for the first time in outer space. Astronauts have been testing all kinds of foods while on missions, but most have been generally considered impractical or not optimal in terms of efficiency. Queal is about to change all of that.

Since Queal has such a superior scientific makeup, it is likely that it will revolutionise food in space.

Update: As many of you noticed (and some didn’t) this was our April fools joke. In all seriousness, we do believe that Queal would be perfect for long mission and we truly believe that eating Queal will also be psychologically fine (as many people here on earth do it too). So… if you know anyone at NASA, let us know 🙂