Preparing meals for consumption aboard the International Space Station can present some unique problems.

And currently, through the NASA HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge, a number of high school students are getting to solve those firsthand.

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NASA Project Engineer Allison Westover is the HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge Program Manager.  (She is also the NASA JSC HUNCH Mentor for the HUNCH Design and Prototype program.)

HUNCH is an acronym for “High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware”.  The HUNCH program empowers high school students by mentoring them as they create real-world items for NASA.

Alli says teams from participating high schools can participate in one of six different HUNCH competitions.   Each starts at the beginning of the new school year and culminates in a final review, in the spring, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.  Winning projects go into use on the International Space Station.

A school-year commitment

In the Astronaut Culinary Challenge, participating student teams research food processing in microgravity.  After coming up with ideas in accordance with NASA’s nutritional guidelines and this year’s Challenge theme, a school submits the best two to Alli.   Then, according to the timeline on the HUNCH Culinary Challenge website, she’ll review and critique the proposals–sending recommendations by mid-December.

Then, students get to work, developing and tweaking their recipes.   The goal: to be one of the selected finalist groups, who will go to Johnson Space Center in the spring.  Finalists get to have their dish reviewed by an astronaut and the ISS program office.  And the winning recipe, goes on the menu for the ISS crew!

But cooking is only part of the preparations.

Teams research, fine-tune their recipes, write a final paper and even produce a 2-minute video, prior to the pre-selection competition.

Alli talked about the HUNCH Culinary Challenge, what students (and educators) can expect when they participate and some of the considerations involved in cooking for astronauts aboard the ISS.

On this edition of Over Coffee®, you will hear:

• How the NASA HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge first began;

• How interested educators can get their schools involved in the HUNCH program;

• What happens for the student groups, once they get involved in the HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge for the school year;

• The considerations NASA (and the HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge teams) have to keep in mind, when cooking for the space station crew;

• What types of foods astronauts have liked, in the past;

• The theme for the 2018-2019 Culinary Challenge;

• Some of the mistakes past student teams have made, from which this year’s teams could learn;

• How much of a time commitment team members can expect to make;

• Some additional HUNCH program options available to high school students, in addition to the Culinary Challenge.