2023-06-06 15:25:36
The typical dehydrated food of astronauts could have the hours counted. Because, to study how the space environment influences cooking techniques such as frying, the European Space Agency (ESA) has designed a new experimental device, safe and weightless.
Frying potatoes involves complex physics and chemistry. But also, in space everything becomes more complicated. The creators of the invention were not sure if they could carry out this cooking technique without gravity: without the buoyancy pulling up, the bubbles could stick to the surface of the potatoes, protecting it with a layer of steam that the researchers thought could leave it undercooked and undesirable.
The experiments were carried out in two ESA parabolic flight campaigns, in which an aircraft flies in repeated arcs to recreate brief moments of weightlessness, the agency reports in a announcement.
The experiment filmed the frying process with a high-speed, high-resolution camera to capture bubble dynamics such as growth rate, size, and distribution, as well as escape velocity from the potato, velocity of bubbles and the direction of movement in the oil. The experiment measured the temperature of the boiling oil as well as the temperatures inside the potato.
The experiment hardware is automated and locked for security. It maintains a constant pressure inside the frying chamber to prevent leaks, prevent oil from spattering and spend less energy heating.
Researchers at the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, found that shortly after adding the potato to the oil under low-gravity conditions, the vapor bubbles easily dislodged from the potato’s surface in a similar way to Earth. While more research is needed to fine-tune some parameters, it does indicate that astronauts will be able to have more than rehydrated food on the menu as they explore new worlds.
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