Chinese Astronaut Says Space Food Tastes 'Great'

Reuters ^ | 10-15-03

[Brian S]

Oct. 15 — BEIJING (Reuters) - China's first man in space told his wife and son Wednesday that the bite-size food he took along for his 21-hour journey around Earth tasted "great."

"Daddy, have you eaten rice yet? What did you eat?" eight-year-old Yang Ningkang asked his astronaut father in a conversation broadcast on state television.

"I've already eaten, ate space food," said Yang Liwei, 38, during his eighth orbit around Earth. "It tastes great."

Yang was to dine on specially designed packets of more than 20 kinds of family-style Chinese fare, including shredded pork with garlic sauce, spicy "kung pao" chicken and "eight treasures" rice, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Yang's meals were to be washed down with Chinese herbal tea and health boosting tonics, it said.

[pageonetoo]

well, if you have friends at Loral, and RadioShack/and many of the computer companies building their gps and communications equipment in your yard, (in China), and you have clinton/gore feeding you all of the technical parameters needed to build the engines, etal, then even a little boy in his back yard can do it!
Gravity will bring him back!

[Frank_Discussion]

Quite true, and part of my point: The technology hurdle has been cleared by the USSR/Russia, and the Chinese have even installed reasonable upgrades. Namely, a set of solar panels and a version of our docking system, both of which turn one half of the spacecraft stack into a small space station. They'll return to the station with another Shenzou, and leave more behind, expanding it in size.

As far as safety costs go, you have kind of a conservation of effort effect.

Our model: spend lots of money and employ lots of people to avoid multiple and often losses of craft and crew. This isn't an unreasonable way to go, if the people in charge of the money don't have a stroke over the occasional tragedy, a la Columbia. It seems our skins are a little thin, here.

China's model: spend less, buy off-the-rack (with some taloring) and accept a little uncertainty. They are still avoiding all the risk they can, but they'll still less risk-averse than we. They have the potential to go further and faster than we, but with more losses. With their command economy and whatnot, they'll weather it.

(Early) Commercial Aviation's model: Lots of independent inventors and smaller companies crashing and burning all around you, but a few smart and stout folk creating working aircraft. A lot of people lost a lot, but it was theirs to lose. The result is a low safety cost. There are a lot of dead ends and wasted effort this way, too, though.

[stainlessbanner]

Next on the menu: sumyungman

[Mamzelle]

re: NASA couldn't match it for 10 years)))

Any Chinese probes to Mars? Just check out the jpl site to see that they don't come close to what we could do if we could forget about sending pets and pals on rides, and sent a robot to do a robot's work. Or an armada of robots.

The Chinese are putting their little lotus footprints in our decades-old footsteps.

If we just didn't have to bring 'em home, the wonders we could do. As it stands, let the Chinese have their fun. If they focus only on the spaceman merry-go-round, they'll end up just as stuck as we have.

[oyez]

I wonder what his fortune cookie said.

[DannyTN]

Proof Positive that they threatened to torture his family on earth if he didn't tote the party line.

[RightWhale]

The Chinese are putting their little lotus footprints in our decades-old footsteps.

Too bad nobody cares. They won't claim the moon, just occupy it. One special part, the crater with water.

[Feckless]

Yang like his chicken SPICY!

[MistrX]

http://airlinemeals.net/index.html

[Mamzelle]

??

Your reply is not sensible.

If the Chinese were to try to *occupy* they'd have to come up with new technology and spend billions. The Russians made it to the moon, and had no interest in occupation.

[RightWhale]

If the Chinese were to try to *occupy* they'd have to come up with new technology and spend billions.

Are you kidding? They launched the equivalent of the Apollo moon capsule yesterday. As to expense, the techs would do it for the cost of a bunk in the barracks, halfway decent food, and new pocket protectors now and then. They are probably building the lunar landing module already, and they don't need a Saturn V so don't bother looking for that.

[sphinx]

They're only forty years late...

Except that they want to go, and will keep on going. We seem to have forgotten that we ever cared about it.

We should have had a permanent base on the moon 20 years ago and be exploring Mars by now. If the Chinese do it first, they should be applauded, and we should be embarrassed.

[Kirkwood]

Naturally lots of food jokes because this was an article about space food.

You say that NASA is ten years behind, but NASA is technologically so far ahead of China that we are in their rear view mirror and ready to lap them once again. It only looks like we are behind if you ignore history and the truth.

A swallow does not make a summer, and one person in a space capsule thrown into orbit does not constitute a viable human space program. There is much the Chinese will have to learn and master, however, they do have a technological advantage the Soviets and Americans didn't have 40 years ago and they have the knowledge gained from America's open-door space program.

The US has little interest in lunar missions because the moon has very limited intrinsic or strategic value in the foreseeable future. If your interests have turned from the desert to the ocean, you don't keep returning to the desert hoping to find water. Rather than waste money on an independent human space program, China should put their considerable talents toward something truly useful such as research into affordable, limitless supplies of energy.

[Bon mots]

I wonder what his fortune cookie said.

[RightWhale]

China should put their considerable talents toward something truly useful such as research into affordable, limitless supplies of energy.

They are, and not just energy but also food. When you attend the '08 Olympics in Beijing, you may notice the agriculture displays of crops especially modified for orbiting space farms. Boring stuff, but apparently beyond the imagination of our bureaucratic space engineers. They have plans for outer space. We don't.

[Bryan24]

1. We did it first.

2. We did it 33 years ago.(Men on moon)

3. We sent men to the moon 6 times. Over 2 decades ago.

3. We have exceeded 100 flights on the follow-up system to the Apollo systems.

I am currently sitting in a NASA office and I'm not very happy about the state of the Agency, but they ARE 42 years behind us, using the technology and lessons we gave them.

[DTA]

>>>>...and you have clinton/gore feeding you all of the technical parameters needed to build the engines...<<<<

Thank you Comrade Clin Toon

[Kirkwood]

They are welcome to have space... there isn't much up there for humans to explore first hand. If they were showing serious efforts toward unmanned exploration vehicles and space-based weapons or defensive systems, then I would say we need to pay attention to what they are doing. Twenty years from now, China will look back with regret for having wasted billions on human space flight.

[mrobison]

Q: Why does Chinese food come in such small pieces?

A: Because it's already been chewed for you. Q: What's the best selling book at Ebay in China?

101 Ways To Wok Your Dog

[RightWhale]

China could send a circumlunar mission next year. It's possible. NASA could not do that again for a decade. China could catch up in space tech in one launch, and you can bet they are trying to do so. Who knows what they are building. Could be a lunar transfer rocket coming out anytime, and a lunar landing module, too. They could launch a Mars probe and we wouldn't have any advance notice. Not to be paranoid, but these things are possible, and they would seem to want to leapfrog everybody, according to various recently released statements.