NASA has quite the menu prepared for the Artemis II crew members throughout their 10-day journey.
Their meals and snacks will include vegetable quiche, breakfast sausage, macaroni and cheese, barbecued beef brisket, tortillas, butternut squash, spicy green beans, cauliflower, granola, almonds, cashews, and fruit salad.
Since the Orion capsule doesn’t have refrigeration, most of the meals are freeze-dried, and all contain shelf-stable ingredients. Eating in orbit is also trickier than it is on Earth, which means NASA has to make the meals easy to prepare and consume in a microgravity environment while also minimizing pesky crumbs that could float around in the capsule.
The crew members will have scheduled time each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are also allotted two flavored beverages per day, according to NASA. The beverage choices include coffee, green tea, lemonade, apple cider, cocoa and smoothies.
Space food isn’t necessarily bland. NASA said five different hot sauces will be flying around the moon with the Artemis II crew, along with flavorings such as honey, cinnamon, spicy mustard, maple syrup, jams and nut butters.
For dessert, the astronauts will have their pick of cookies, pudding, cake, cobbler, chocolate and candy-coated almonds, NASA said.