The astronaut chosen to journey to outer space as part of India’s Gaganyaan mission late next year or early 2022 will not have to forego Indian food during his sojourn. A very desi menu featuring dal, aloo parathas, chicken curry, pulao and almonds will be available to him on board the craft, after being subjected to stringent quality control on par with US-NASA standards.
The Indian astronaut’s breakfast, lunch and dinner menu will draw from a spread of 22 Indian dishes and fruit juices—in all weighing 60 kg and 100 litres of water.
It has been designed by the Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) at Mysuru to suit the palate of the four Indian astronauts to be trained for the week-long sojourn in outer space.
Dr Semwal said the food will be wrapped in special disposable packaging material designed to prevent contamination. The eatables can be warmed using the food warmers on board the spacecraft. “Every dish will be mildly spicy but we will provide extra taste makers if the astronauts want to eat highly spiced food,” he added.
Dr Semwal said nutrition bars, powdered fruit juice, almonds and nuts will form part of the food package for the Indian astronauts so that they can snack during breaks.
Asked why the lab was following standards set by NASA and not Russia where the four pilots will be trained, he said the US space agency followed extremely stringent quality control standards.
