Freeze-dried ice cream facts for kids
Freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream
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| Type | Ice cream |
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| Created by | Whirlpool Corporation |
Freeze-dried ice cream, also known as astronaut ice cream or space ice cream, is a special kind of ice cream. It has most of its water removed using a process called freeze-drying. This means it can be sealed in a pouch and doesn't need to be kept in a fridge.
Unlike regular ice cream, it won't melt at room temperature. It feels dry and a bit hard, but it becomes soft when you bite into it. This special ice cream was created by Whirlpool Corporation for NASA. It was meant for the Apollo missions to the Moon. However, it was never actually eaten on any Apollo mission. Freeze-dried foods were developed for long spaceflights. They helped reduce the weight of food and prevented spills in zero-gravity.
Contents
How is astronaut ice cream made?
Making freeze-dried ice cream involves a process called freeze drying (or lyophilization). This method removes water from the ice cream. It works by lowering the air pressure around the ice cream. This causes the ice to turn directly into a gas.
Here's how it works:
- First, the ice cream is put into a vacuum chamber.
- It is frozen until all the water inside turns into ice crystals.
- Then, the air pressure is lowered. This creates a partial vacuum, pulling air out.
- Next, heat is gently added. This makes the ice turn directly into vapor (a gas). This process is called sublimation.
- Finally, a freezing coil inside the chamber catches this water vapor. It turns the vapor back into ice.
This whole process takes several hours. The result is a dry, freeze-dried ice cream slice.
You can often find freeze-dried ice cream for sale online. It's also very common in science museums and NASA visitor center gift shops. Sometimes, you'll see other freeze-dried foods sold alongside it.
Did astronauts eat freeze-dried ice cream in space?
Freeze-dried foods were first made for the Mercury space missions. Even though product packages often show astronauts in space suits eating it, freeze-dried ice cream was not used on missions where space suits were worn.
There is only one record of freeze-dried ice cream possibly flying in space. It was listed on the menu for the Apollo 7 mission. However, when the last surviving member of Apollo 7 was asked, he didn't remember eating it.
One food scientist from NASA said that even though freeze-dried ice cream was created when asked for, "it wasn't that popular." Astronaut Mike Massimino didn't like it. He called it "disgusting" and said it was "more closely related to a building material than a food."
What kind of ice cream do astronauts eat now?
Astronauts have eaten regular ice cream in space. In the 1970s, astronauts on the Skylab space station enjoyed regular ice cream. Skylab had a freezer, which made this possible.
Sometimes, astronauts on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station have also brought regular ice cream with them.
See also
In Spanish: Helados liofilizados para niños
