Spring 2021 // Collaborator : Christina Hwee
This project was my “thesis” project adapted from the 2021 NASA Deep Space Food Challenge.
Currently, astronauts eat food that is constantly re-supplied from Earth. NASA is trying to prepare astronauts to go to Mars and even farther so food resupply in the future is not an option. To accommodate for longer duration space missions, NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge exists to create novel and game-changing food technologies or systems that require minimal inputs and maximizes food outputs for long-duration space missions, which have the potential to benefit people on Earth.
The initial problem scope is quite big and we first worked to try to narrow our scope. We realized that we wanted to innovate in the liminal space between food production (i.e. growing food in space) and meal production (astronauts eating in space). We refer to this liminal space as meal preparation - figuring out how to combine the prepackaged food and space grown produce and turn them into palatable meals for the astronauts to enjoy.
We focused our research on the current state of meals in space and the pain points associated with that. The current meal options for astronauts on the ISS including cans and packets of dehydrated or freeze-dried food.
Some of our insights came directly from NASA’s food webinars:
Food culture is important in space too - astronauts want variety in their meals and food culture affects mission performance and overall spirit of the team
An astronaut’s sense of taste is dulled in space due to the fluid distribution in their body- so they prefer things spicier with lots of added sauces
Astronauts gravitate towards things that remind them of home or life on Earth
We also interviewed 5 experts, from design thinkers to submarine personnel. They provided us with insights on how to think about the food experience differently and helped us consider the varied experiences of astronauts and people in constrained spaces and environments.
Do you even know how hard it is to prepare a meal in space?!
We journey mapped Astronaut Susan Magnus’ cooking experiments as she wrote about these in a blog. We identified several pain points that astronauts face when cooking in space. For instance, Astronauts must...
Work with zip lock bags and a lot of duct tape, not to mention they’re also floating in zero gravity.
Make sure the food is captured after they cut it (floating food particles is a safety hazard… hence thou shall not eat foods that crumble!).
Cut food inside bags, but they have to be careful otherwise it will rip the bag.
The journey map helped us to understand pain points we were trying to solve in the process of meal preparation.
We broke down meal preparation into three parts along the cooking journey:
Cutting: there needs to be a way to brace or hold down the food and the process happens with a sharp tool.
Mixing: food needs to be in a central location and there is a repetitive motion that occurs on one axis.
Containing: there needs to be barriers or some form of adhesion to keep the food together with one entry point.
These design criteria helped to ground our ideation and frame our later activities that we went through.
To help stimulate our imagination engaged in a bodystorming activity to help us empathize with an astronaut’s struggles to meal prep in zero gravity. This was suggested by one of our interviewees.
We tried to experience what cutting, mixing, and containing would be like for a blind person, someone missing an arm, someone with limited grip, and someone with body tremors. In particular, a blind person is analogous to an astronaut constantly blind to the small pieces of food floating away from them out of sight, and a person missing an arm speaks to how astronauts need to multitask with more of their limbs in space than on earth to perform simple tasks in zero gravity such as catching floating objects.
Left: I act out what it's like to be a blind person cutting
Right: Christina tries to understand body tremors with cutting
(COVID really tested our will with virtual ideation)
We thought it may be advantageous to utilize the astronauts personal space in order to keep food and tools central to the body. We imagined deep pockets for them to store trash, a place they can velcro food packages so things don’t float away, and retractable utensils for them to cut their food safely.
Feedback from concept testing:
Vest would move around the astronaut’s body in zero gravity
It may not be something the astronauts would want to put on every time they prepare their food.
Currently astronauts have to cut packages open, but only 90% of the way otherwise they’ll have an extra piece of garbage floating around. It’s difficult to mix food because they have to hold so many things in their hands and sometimes the food gets stuck to the bags, so we thought it would be cool if there was a zipper that would link two bags together for astronauts to mix sauces or food.
Feedback from concept testing:
For the zippered packets- this received really good feedback because it directly meets a current pain point of astronauts where they are inconvenienced when trying to combine packets of food such as sauces.
This machine helps to cut fresh produce while keeping it contained, it also guides newly cut produce into sealed containers via a vacuum.
Feedback from concept testing:
Addresses the need for an all in one system to cut and contain food. Additional feedback included an option to compartmentalize cut produce. The machine also leverages existing technologies we know work on the ISS- vacuums are already used in bathrooms.
Through concept testing, we eliminated the food prep vest as a viable solution because the vest would suspend above their bodies like their clothes do and this would be more inconvenient for astronauts.
When we prototyped the zipper packet, we realized it was extremely difficult to design how the current packaging would zip together. We concept tested this with our supervisor and he proposed we re-imagine how the food packaging itself could be redesigned.
Then, we prototyped the vacuum machine and we realized that the cutting component would need to be connected to a motor in order for it to provide sufficient cutting, so we incorporated this into our final design.
Left: Christina trying to figure out how the zipper packets would attach together
Right: Me prototyping a mini vacuum machine with modular pieces
The Star packet opens via a pull-tab that remains attached to the packet after opening to ensure it does not become hazardous fly-away debris. (Think: those baby snack food containers that spill-proof).
The silicone slits at the opening make it easy to insert opened sauce packets and utensils for eating, while still maintaining a spill and leakage-proof eating experience without food escaping the packet.
This is a rendition of the Star Packet which utilizes existing packaging material. Packets are able to attach to each other via a twist and lock mechanism around the silicone slits. This allows for easy transfer and mixing of food from one packet to another.
The Comet Cutter addresses the need for an all in one system to cut and contain food. It leverages existing technologies we know work on the ISS such as vacuums that are already used in bathrooms. The Comet Cutter consists of three major components:
The blade and the container to chop the food,
A round opening for the star packet to attach to
A vacuum that is attached to the open of the star packet to draw the food downward and into the packet.
