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>> Hi now we're back here inside
the Space Food Laboratory here

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at the NASA Johnson Space Center

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and again earlier we've
been talking about some

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of the preparation and
talking about food and some

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of the menu items that crew
aboard the International Space

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Station will be having
this Thanksgiving

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and again we are here
with Vickie Kloeris,

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our NASA space scientist, tell
me this is just another area

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of that food lab so tell
me exactly what area are we

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in right now.

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Okay what you see behind
you is our packaging room

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and so it's really a portable,
commercial portable clean room

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that we've converted
into a packaging area

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so all our packaging
equipment is inside.

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It has Hepa filters
that filter the air

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to help keep the
contamination possibilities

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down when we're packaging food.

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So the type of food that you
would...we do all our beverages

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would be packaged here like
we have in this package

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and all our freeze
dried items as well

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as our bite sized products like
M and M's, cookies, crackers,

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candies all of those items would
be packaged in the equipment

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that you see here
in this facility.

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>> Okay great so tell me a
little about the packaging,

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what do we have, what
kind of packaging is this?

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>> The beverage package,
all of our beverages are

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in powdered form and so this
is a foil laminate pouch

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that we buy from a commercial
manufacturer, we buy it,

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it's sealed on three sides,
it's open on this end.

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We weigh in the appropriate
amount of powder

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for a single serving and
then the packaging equipment

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that you see here is designed
to seal the beverage adapter

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or the septum adapter assembly
into the end of the package

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and so this is what allows
the water to be injected

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on orbit using the
rehydration station.

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Inside this is a septum and the
septum is a little plastic valve

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so the needle inserts and the
water is injected and then

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when the needle is withdrawn
the septum closes off

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to prevent the fluid from
flowing out of the package.

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>> Okay, great and then they
just take this and shake it up

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and then insert a straw...

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>> Yeah into the package
and drink through the straw.

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>> Okay.

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>> And the straw has
a clamp on it so that

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in between sips they
can clamp it closed

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to prevent the fluid
from flowing out.

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>> The re-hydratable products
all require the addition

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of some amount of water
prior to consumption,

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has the same septum
adaptor assembly,

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in this case they inject the
water, they wait for the product

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to absorb the water then they're
able to cut the package open

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with scissors and eat out of the
package with a fork or a spoon.

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Typically what they'll do
is cut an X across the top,

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they'll eat out of the
center of the X and the flaps

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from the remaining material
will help hold the rest

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of the product inside the
package while they extract the

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bite that they're going to eat.

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>> Okay.

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>> You're depending
on the surface tension

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of the wet product to cause
it to stick to the package

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or stick to your utensil.

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>> So there's no turkey carving
up there, it's just the scissors

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and they cut it open and
eat that just as that is.

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So talk to me a little bit
about...so this is what he is

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doing actually right behind
us, there's some packaging now,

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can you tell me about how long
in advance do we typically start

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to prepare food that is
going to flown into space?

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>> Well, we have to maintain
an inventory of our products

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at all times and so typically
we'll be producing...we produce

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like our thermo stabilized
products we'll produce those

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year round.

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>> Okay.

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>> Because it will
take us an entire year

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to produce all the
different kinds

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of thermo stabilized
products that we have.

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Beverages we're going to
package those usually as needed

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and so typically for a ship set

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for beverages we'll start
packaging those about four

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of five months in
advance of the time

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that shipment is actually
going to go out the door.

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>> Okay.

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>> And re-hydratables usually
we try to package those

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in about...within about a six
or eight month period prior

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to the shipment going
out the door.

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>> Okay, great.

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So this is the packaging
but talk to me a little bit

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about the packing, how
is this food packed to go

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up into the International
Space Station.

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>> Okay well we have a
couple of different options

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for actually the containers
that we use to send the food

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to orbit, one is a collapsible
metal food container,

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typically we use that when we're
sending food on the Progress

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because the Progress
has slots built into it

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that hold those containers.

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Another option that we often
use is what we call our bulk

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overwrap bag, it's really
just a large plastic bag

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that we overwrap
the contents of one

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of those metal containers in.

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And we're typically using

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that when we're sending
food on the ATV or HTV.

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>> Okay and these are cargo
ships of the different agencies

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that we have [inaudible].

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>> Unmanned cargo vehicles.

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>> Right, Okay.

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>> Okay and now with Space X the
new commercial cargo [inaudible]

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we're also using the
bulk overwrap bags,

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the plastic overwrap bags
which I can show you later.

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>> Sure.

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>> And they take those and
actually put them inside

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of the crew transfer
bag, or the MO2 bags,

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the different...we
have an example of one

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in there in the lab as well.

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>> Okay.

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>> But they typically take
those bulk overwrap bags

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and stow them inside another
container to get them to orbit.

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>> Great, okay now as you
know we've been answering some

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questions from people that
we've polled and thanks

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to our total followers just
sending these questions.

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Now one of the questions
and this kind of talks

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about the future space feed
system and so I'd like you

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to kind of go on and
talk to me a little

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about what technologies we're
exploring for space feed system

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because obviously International
Space Station is one place

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and then there are further
destinations that's we'd

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like to go.

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>> Right.

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>> And we need food to sustain
us for longer periods of time.

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One of these questions are
given a true space galley,

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this comes from Todd Templeman,

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what's the most useful
edible we could grow

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in an attached green
house, thanks.

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>> Okay so there's two ways
to look at that question,

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in transit if you were
say on your way to Mars

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on a six month mission, which
now we know it will take

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with current propulsion it
will take about six months

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to get there you could grow
some crops during the transit

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but typically those would have

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to be what we call
pick and eat crops.

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Meaning something like a cherry
tomato that you could grow,

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you could harvest and
basically all you'd have

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to do is clean it and eat it.

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Because in micro gravity you're
not really going to be able

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to do a lot of the
elaborate processing of crops

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or elaborate cooking because
without gravity that gets very,

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very difficult so it's not
really practical to think

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about growing wheat in micro
gravity and then having

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to mill it into flour,
that's not going

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to work in micro gravity.

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But when you get to the surface
of the moon or Mars and you have

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and you're on the
surface where you have

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at least partial gravity you can
certainly then begin to think

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about the possibility
of either growing crops

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to help you recycle your air and
water and then also using them

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as part of your food system or
also the possibility of taking

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like bulk ingredients
with you say like flour

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and then doing more
elaborate cooking...

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>> So not having our
food already prepared

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but actually kind of
putting ingredients together

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to prepare a dish.

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>> Actually doing real cooking,
probably you're not going to do

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that 100 percent because it does
take a lot more free time and so

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in that situation it's probably
going to end up being a mix

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of prepackaged foods and
perhaps stuff that you prepare.

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>> Kind of like the
cooking I do at home.

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>> Right, exactly.

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>> All right...well
thank you that's a wrap

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on the food wrap here and how
it's wrapped here at NASA,

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the NASA Space Food Lab,
again with Vickie Kloeris,

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from our kitchen to
yours, happy Thanksgiving.