The days of rehydratable food are soon going to be over for astronauts, as a bunch of researchers from the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA, have designed a ‘space FRIDGE (dubbed Freezer Refrigerator Incubator Device for Galley and Experimentation).
The units were designed by BioServe Space Technologies at UCB and are only about the size of a standard microwave. “There are no rotating parts, no fans, which is really big for reliability,” Robby Aaron, an aerospace master’s student working on the project, said in an April press statement. “A normal fridge on Earth is also hot in the back. We can’t have that in space. Warm air doesn’t rise in microgravity; it stays stationary and can cause things to overheat, so you must get rid of heat some other way. ISS has a water-cooling system we’ll be tapped into to directly dump the waste heat and keep the system cool.”
The NASA has bought 8 of these units so far, and these space refrigerators are now on their way to the International Space Station (ISS), on the restocking shuttle that is to be sent for astronauts from the Crew Dragon mission that NASA has partnered with SpaceX for.
The two currently winging their way to the ISS aboard the Cygnus NG-14 robotic resupply craft will be reserved for food — both perishable meals delivered from the planet and fresh produce produced by the station’s hydroponic garden — as well as medicine. The others, which are in use already aboard the station, are utilized in chilling temperature-sensitive test materials.