Canadian cookies, smoked salmon, shrimp curry on the menu for Artemis 2 mission

After a break of 53 years, humans will be going back to the Moon with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Artemis II project. Scheduled to lift off sometime in Septemeber 2025 with four astronauts on board. For their 10-day sojourn, the food will be prepared keeping in mind the crew’s taste and cultural preferences.

The astronauts part of this human spaceflight mission are NASA commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover (the first Black person to leave low Earth orbit), NASA mission specialist Christina Koch (the first woman) and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who will become the first Canadian to fly around the moon. So, the menu will include Canadian maple leaf cream cookies as well. They have already flown on several other ISS missions. The quartet’s menu will also include a portion of what is usually served at the International Space Station (ISS).

Astronauts typically eat three meals and one snack a day. They have to consume anywhere between 1,900 and 3,200 calories a day depending on their weight and gender. While selecting the food, CSA looks at factors such as "shelf life, texture, packaging, ingredients, feasibility to prepare and ease of consumption in space," officials told Space.com. Some of the other dishes on the menu include smoked salmon, shrimp curry with rice and strawberry lavender superseed cereal will include chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, buckwheat and hemp that are mixed with water. A serving of Maple syrup will also be included in the meal plans.

A lot of thought and research goes into creating a menu for spaceflight missions as the food has to make minimal food waste and is hence, dehydrated, says Natalie Hirsch, project manager of operational space medicine with the Canadian Space Agency, as reported by CTVNews. The Orion capsule, which will act as the living space for the Artemis II mission, has a space of only eight meters.

The Artemis II mission is being spearheaded by NASA, however, it has several partners who are providing support in the form of technology, knowledge and resources. Canada is one of the 30 countries that have signed the NASA-led Artemis Accords, which are a series of non-binding bilateral arrangements between the United States and governments from around the world that outline norms expected to be followed in outer space and during space exploration. Tthe other agencies that are part of the Artemis II program are European Space Agency, Japanes Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency