Eating Aboard the Artemis II
Some very optimistic thoughts on food
The world’s been a big ol’ dumpster fire, as is its wont.
But I’ll be ding-dong damned if the flight and journey of the Artemis II haven’t brought a smile onto everyone’s face. I love seeing all the responses that people have had, from reposting pictures to pasting links about the astronauts.
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about this endeavor.
But what I’m the most excited about?
Hearing about the food.
According to NASA’s website, the food chosen for the astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft were carefully curated before the astronauts even took off. This isn’t surprising, considering that the mission had to be focused as much on the objective goals as possible. To quote further, ‘Food aboard Orion is ready-to-eat, rehydratable, thermostabilized, or irradiated’.
You don’t need to heat up the food in order to consume it, which is refreshing. This ranges from beer brisket to fruit smoothies to even cobbler.
On that note, let’s talk more about what was packed along for the ride. Check out the menu below!
It is no surprise to me that tortillas are one of the key menu items on the Orion spacecraft. They’ve been part of space diets for four decades, at this point.
A tortilla’s flat shape makes it a perfect carb-loading vehicle for any toppings (flat PBJ, maybe?) in space. I’m pretty sure its storage, when compressed at the physics that takeoff and propulsion require, is much easier than a loaf of sliced wheat bread, too.
Flatbread is packed in there, too. I’m a massive bread lover myself, but the chewy texture of your average loaf–to say nothing of the many crumbs that it can produce. Man, thinking about a chewy, wonderful, baguette…and all the crumbs that could potentially get into your spaceship.
Ugh. Not great!
Oh, and if those chewy bits of gluten aren’t for you, couscous, mac and cheese (!), and even the fancy sounding broccoli au gratin are available. Even brisket is up for grabs on the Orion, and five–count ‘em!--five different hot sauces are on the menu. I haven’t found out if Sriracha, Tabasco, or Cholula are part of the five.
(Those are my Holy Trinity of hot sauces. At some point I’ll write about them, too).
(this would be the size I’d bring aboard. I’m not apologizing.)
Maple syrup is there too. As one of my characters in the novels I am writing about is obsessed with maple syrup, this has me giggling with joy.
Two flavored drinks a day are allowed for astronauts aboard the Orion. Of these, the one that stood out to me the most is coffee—one cup per day per astronaut.
How would that be heated, if at all? I say this as someone who drinks coffee in all forms, be it hot, cold, or lukewarm because I’ve been running around all morning like a human border collie and I’m desperate to have some caffeine shoved into me.
Other drinks are more calorically dense, such as fruit juices and smoothies.
Food must be shelf stable in this case. Unlike the International Space Station, which can provide fresh food, the foods brought onto the Orion need to be shelf stable. As I like to think about it, it is almost like preparing for a backpacking trip, rather than a car-camping experience.
More can be read about the food and the selection here: Artemis II: What’s on the Menu? - NASA
Aside from this, I have noticed that Millennial women have a weird relationship with food. We fantasize about it, but loathe to think about it at the same time. Heck, I’m doing it right now, and I certainly do in my writing. I imagine what cookies might be like on space stations (and they are packed on the Orion, too!).
I wonder about the prevalence of sunflower butter and allergies. At some point, I’ll go bananas and absolutely info-dump on everyone about how I imagine butter might be lab grown. I drank a beer made with lab-grown spirulina this past weekend…could that be in our future as well?
These are the types of things I love to research, ponder, and involve in.
Personally, I love writing about food.
Why?
Well, quite frankly. I love food. Also, I love going against the grain (was that a pun?).
Like many adult women in the Unforgiving Hellscape of 2026, I grew up in an era where admitting to enjoying food, especially for someone with my background (an educated white girl with WASP parts), was up there with admitting you enjoy relaxing with a nice crackpipe.
Women, and especially young girls, were supposed to drink their Diet Pepsis, their Sugar Free Redbulls, slam our tiny bodies into child-sized jeans, and be applauded for this clear signal of self-restraint and control.
In a way, writing and enjoying meals from different cultures, areas, and formats was my own strange rebellion. I’m in quite decent shape (my BMI is a 21, and that’s all you need to know).
I think writing–and being excited–about food in the future is so beautifully human. It is the ultimate form of hope, of knowing there is a meal out there that will nourish you, that others have helped create to make you safe, well, and healthy.
I love innovation, exchanging, and consuming new ideas and products. I want things to be an adventure. More to the point, I love the idea of designing and creating something new that will help us in the future. Whether that’s figuring out how to make an espresso in space (and how we will probably be consuming oat milk like there’s no tomorrow on space stations).
I’ll have to look deeper into the mealtimes of the Orion crew and find out more of what their experiences were like preparing and eating their meals thousands of miles from any other human’s kitchen.
We have the same hot sauce trinity, who knew? haha