Hope you had a very Happy Fourth of July!  Over Coffee® is on holiday hiatus this week.  Here is a rebroadcast of one of our most popular shows of 2018.
(Photo courtesy of Alli Westover, NASA HUNCH, and used with permission.)

 

What if YOUR high school science project had involved creating a meal for the ISS crew?

That's exactly what the NASA HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge allows participating schools to do.

Every school year, participating high school teams compete to come up with a dish that the astronauts aboard the International Space Station might like.  But this is not simply a cooking class.

Microgravity, the effects of space travel and what they mean for food intake, and the problems of transporting food all come into the "mix".

NASA OSU Project Engineer Allison Westover is the NASA HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge Program Manager. (She is also the NASA JSC HUNCH Mentor for the HUNCH Design and Prototype program.).  We talked about the NASA HUNCH program, and what students involved in the Astronaut Culinary Challenge can expect.  We also explored some of the additional options available, for students who would like to use their maker skllls to create something for the International Space Station.
On this edition of Over Coffee®, you will hear:

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How the NASA HUNCH Astronaut Culinary Challenge first began;

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

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

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

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

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The theme for the 2018-2019 Culinary Challenge;

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

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

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