1. SURVIVING IN SPACE
EATING, DRINKING AND GOING TO THE TOILET

2. EATING, DRINKING AND GOING TO THE TOILET
Flow of ideas through the activities (green = practical activity):
Astronauts needs to eat
If astronauts eat then they are also going to need to deal with what comes out the other end
What problems does being in space cause for transporting, storing and eating food?
What problems does this cause in space?
How are these solved?
How are these solved?
What does space ice cream actually taste like?
Can we make a maximum absorbency garment for an astronaut doll?
Can we design a balanced menu using only foods that are suitable for space?

3. EATING, DRINKING AND GOING TO THE TOILET
Suggested Activities:
Watch NASA Food labs / history of space food (19min21s) (filmed at NASA’s space food labs – KS2 level information about how the food is preserved), NASA video Eating on the Space Station (8min28s) (2 astronauts show their food and how they eat – lots of information about practical problems) and Commander Hadfield Eating Cake and Coffee (1min42s) (short and highly accessible)
Discuss what problems there might be with food and drink in space. What foods would not be suitable and why?
Research how foods are preserved for use in space and taste ‘space ice cream’
Try to design a heathy balanced diet based on the NASA space shuttle food list
Discuss how you might deal with ‘what comes out the other end’ in space where there is no gravity to pull things down into a toilet
Watch ESA video Space Station Toilet Tour (2min43s)
Did you know that when astronauts are wearing their space suits for take-off / landing / space walks they might be in them for 6 hours or more so they wear adult nappies called ‘maximum absorbency garments’?
Try to design and build a maximum absorbency garment that can absorb a bottle of water fed to a ‘drink and wet’ doll whilst also fitting under her spacesuit.

4. EATING, DRINKING AND GOING TO THE TOILET
Specific Curriculum Links Y6
“describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans” When the astronauts eat, how does the nutrition get to their brain and muscles?
“recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function”
Why is it important what astronauts eat? Can we create a balanced diet out of space-suitable foods?

5. FOOD AND DRINK IN SPACE - DISCUSSION POINTS
Did you get all of these points between you? Did you think of any others?
Cost of getting it there
it needs to be as small and light weight as possible (lots of dehydrated things that the astronauts add water to)
Storing it without it going off
can’t afford to be made ill by germs in food (lots of heat treated things to ensure germs are killed)
not got much fridge / freezer space
not got frequent deliveries
Making it interesting and nutritious
not much variety available
some vitamin supplements needed (e.g. vitamin D because astronauts don’t go out in the sunlight so their skin doesn’t make it)
Actually eating it in a weightless environment
don’t want to make a mess (packaging you can eat / drink straight from)
especially don’t want crumbs or droplets that might mess up equipment
Avoiding waste
not much space for waste packaging
always eat it all up as no space for waste food
National Curriculum skills:
Identifying and Classifying (what properties make a food suitable for space?)
Research (sources of information – the video clips, independent research? )

6. FOOD AND DRINK IN SPACE – TASTING
Sometimes freeze-dried food turns out to be quite tasty even without adding water back into it… Open up the space ice cream and break it into pieces so that everyone gets a small piece to taste.
What do you think?
Do you prefer this or real ice cream? Why?
FOOD AND DRINK IN SPACE – MEAL DESIGN
Look at the foods which are available in NASA spaceshuttle food list.docx
Can you design a healthy balanced diet for a week using only these foods?
Remember that the fresh items are only any good for the first 2 days.
National Curriculum skills:
Identifying and Classifying (nutritional groups for foods)
Research (sources of information – the NASA list, possibly plus other age appropriate nutrition information)

7. MAKE A MAXIMUM ABSORBENCY GARMENT
Materials per team of 2 or 3 children:
As much kitchen paper and masking tape as they like + 2 pieces stick on velcro for fastening
2 scoops of insta-snow powder (teacher to dispense this when the nappy is ready to contain it) This is the same super-absorbent polymer used in space nappies but has bigger particles in order not to be a problem for people with asthma to handle – it is non toxic and environmentally safe.
(DO NOT EAT OR INHALE THE POWDER OR PUT IN EYES)
The Challenge:
Make a maximum absorbency garment (space nappy) for the ‘drink and wet’ doll that she can wear under her spacesuit and that will not leak after she is fed with the bottle filled up to the black line with water.
(demonstrate adding 2 scoops of snow powder to 25ml water in the beaker so children know what it does)
To test the maximum absorbency garment when each team is ready:
Fit it onto the doll and put her in a sitting position with legs bent forward at the hips
Sit her on a piece of kitchen roll so you can see if she ‘leaks’
Fill the bottle to the 25ml line and feed it to the doll
Press the button on her stomach to cause her to ‘wet’ with that amount of liquid
AFTER USE – wash hands, wipe down surfaces to ensure no remaining powder, bag up gel for disposal in school bins. Clear up any spillages immediately as it is very slippery when wet.
National Curriculum skills:
Fair Testing (how do we make it a fair test of each team’s space nappy?)

8. SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR RELATED MATHS ACTIVITIES
Estimation - how much super-absorbent polymer would be needed for a nappy to last an adult 8 hours? (it absorbs 100 times its own volume of liquid; children will need to think of a way to estimate or look up on the internet how much an adult urinates in a typical day)
It costs about £3600 per kg to get things up to the international space station. How much would it cost to send up an apple? A tin of beans? The packet of space ice cream? Any other food item you can think of?
Is it to scale? Our doll was fed 25ml of water and the nappy needed to catch this amount. How would this amount scale up to an adult human? Is it a reasonable test? (She is about 1/6 the height of an adult human and 1/6 the width and 1/6 the depth. 25 x 6 x 6 x 6 = 1600ml = a pretty big drink! And approx. 4 x adult bladder size!!)
SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR RELATED ENGLISH ACTIVITIES
Write a set of instructions for how to open and eat a particular type of space food
Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting space ice cream and real ice cream
Write a specification that NASA could give to a company that wants to produce space food setting out what properties it must have (e.g. crumb free, shelf life at least a month, containers that fit the equipment on the space station…)

9. ‘EATING, DRINKING, GOING TO THE TOILET’ RESOURCE LIST
Space ice cream (any number of classes at the same time)
Suggest 3 packets per class broken into pieces for tasting – there is some extra in case Y3 want to try it too for tie in to national curriculum ‘nutrition’.
Design a Space Meal (one class at a time – or print more copies)
10 copies of NASA space shuttle food list
Space Nappies (one class at a time)
Drink & wet doll
Feeding bottle with 25ml mark
‘Instant snow powder’ superabsorbent gel
Small scoop
Small beaker for demonstrating effect of 2 scoops gel in 25ml water
Kitchen roll for manufacturing nappies
Masking tape for manufacturing nappies
Stick-on velcro for fastening nappies