With recyclables and simple household items:

Create a tool for astronauts to drink or eat in space!

Enter the SAfG Raffle to win fun prizes by sending us a picture of your design.

Submit by March 23rd, 2020

Step 1:

You will need paper, pencils, a straw, glue or tape and scissors. Add other materials as available: string, aluminum foil, paper clips, plastic baggies, cups, toothpicks, Popsicle sticks,  etc.

Step 2:

Get ideas for this project, click here. 

Step 3:

Pick a beverage or liquid food you will make a tool for. For example, astronauts drink lemonade or eat pudding in space.

Step 4:

Pick a level below (Level A, B or C) of engineering requirements for your tool. The tool you will create needs to:

Level A: have a small opening to fit directly into the mouth, maybe with a straw

• have a great food label so that astronauts will want to eat or drink what’s inside 

Level B: be squishy so that all the liquid inside the container can be pushed out

Level C: be water-tight, maybe by using a plastic lining inside. 

Step 5:

Make a sketch of your idea

Step 6:

Build your tool

Step 7:

Check it against your engineering requirements from Step 4

Step 8:

Take a picture of yourself holding your own design, and send it to slauenstein@scientificadventures.org to enter a raffle for a prize!

Step 9:

Applause!!

If you want to go further, discuss these questions:

• What do you think it would be like to try to eat in outer space? 

• Can you imagine trying to eat a snack as it keeps floating away from you?

• Why?  Well, that's what would happen in a space where there is little gravity. It seems like it would be pretty tricky! 

Background:

Astronauts face a lot of new challenges when they travel in space, and one of those challenges is figuring out how to eat. To provide astronauts with better-tasting foods, engineers came up with some new ideas for space food! Obviously, engineers have many goals in mind as they design food for the astronauts, but the two most important goals are to conserve space and weight. Because most foods are 90% water, it makes sense to remove the water and add it in later—ultimately saving weight and volume. The NASA engineers also want to minimize the garbage that is generated from the meals. And one more goal—they want to make the astronauts' food taste delicious! A lot of people work to prepare the astronauts' food for space flight; then, when they take off, all their food is waiting for the astronauts in the space shuttle. Each astronaut has a unique colored dot on all their food packages so they can easily tell which packages belong to them. And, since most of the astronauts' food is sealed up in packages, another important component of their meal tray is scissors—needed to open the packages. Each astronaut has his/her own set of flatware and scissors.