A few years ago I visited an old friend of who used to work in Korea but relocated to Hong Kong. On the flight down I was given a foil envelope of kimchi with my meal. As a bit of lark I put it in my bag to give to him (he already asked me to bring down soju and dried squid). After I arrived I went straight to his work, and caught up with him in his company’s break room.
From across the room I yelled, “Hey Ralph, catch!”. I pulled out a now disfigured foil kimchi envelope, and hurled it across the room. Ralph caught it with both hands, and the force turned the treat into a kimchi bomb. An explosion of cabbage, pepper paste, and spices flew around the room. I was spared being on the opposite side, my friends white dress shirt was not. I was forgiven, allowed to stay a week, and as I left the break room smelled like kimchi and strong, futile, cleaning products.
I was reminded of this vignette as read the story about how Korean food was adopted for space travel and about the “big feast” to be prepared for everyone aboard the Space Station. At first I was amused to see that most of the “space food” is the instant and shelf-stable fare available in any local convenience store, in fact the linked Joongang Ilbo article names the somewhat predictable suppliers of the goods. The Korea Times however shows a picture of what the food actually looks like, canned Kimchi and Brick-o-Ramen… Yummm! (Somebody tell me when they have space Ttalk-galbi). So no truth to the rumor of a huge GS25 sack being put on the Soyuz capsule.
The Times article also talks about some of the more unusual parts of space life. You wear your underwear for three days. I guess there are no overbearing mothers in space, or cars to run you over necessitating a need to be rushed to the hospital.
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“steamed rice, kimchi, red pepper paste, doenjang (fermented bean) soup, green tea, red ginseng tea, instant noodles and sujeonggwa (cinnamon punch).”
What’s the other stuff? That doesn’t sound like a very healthy diet. The only thing listed that has a significant amount of protein is the doenjang… And nobody really eats a lot of that since it’s a condiment.
“The Times article also talks about some of the more unusual parts of space life. You wear your underwear for three days.”
That IS unusual. I’ve never gotten less than a week out of mine.
A little video on Space Kimchi:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-28-voa31.cfm
FYI, kimchi is readily available in HK, so you don’t need to bring some next time you visit…
What happened to the Korean student who was supposed to be the first Korean in space? No, not Lee So Yeon…
http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?catid=15&itemid=700
# 5,
He got caught stealin… uh, I mean “borrowing,” on an unathorized basis, Russian space flight manuals and other technical data.
Glad to see that Korea’s Space Tourist budget is being put to proper use:
“Yi will also conduct 18 scientific experiments…She will also examine whether writing with an ink pen is possible in zero gravity.”
Um, hello!?! Is this the best sort of experiment to come up with? This ‘experiment’ was solved in the 1960′s and the answer is NO. To resolve this issue the US invented a multi-million dollar zero pressure pen while the Russians took pencils into space.
Got a very unexpected reaction to the space flight in 2 of my university classes this week. When I asked my classes if they had watched the news about Yi So Yeon, most students gave the usual glazed over look, then one guy replied, “that’s none of my business.” In the second class, an eager young go-getter told me, “we aren’t interested in that.” In both cases, I just smiled and nodded, then told everyone to turn to page 42.
@#7
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/techscience/2008/04/08/28/0601000000AEN20080408005600320F.HTML
Obviously there’s more to that than just testing out pens (seems like they’re focusing mostly on biotech than anything else). I’m guessing the pen test was a little joke told either by the agency or Yi herself…
I wonder what would happen if you spilled kimchi in a Soyuz capsule…?
The Russians may have to drench the entire capsule in vodka to get the smell out…
I wonder what would happen if you spilled kimchi in a Soyuz capsule…?
It will be the last time the Russians let a Korean astronaut hitch a ride in a Soyuz.
Garlic burp and kimchi fart. Every time I think of those poor russian cosmonauts I giggle — their station is gonna smell like a car on the number 2 subway line at 9pm on Friday night.
# 10,
Kimchi smell is a small price to pay for $30M (what the Koreans paid to get Ms. Yi to essentially hitch a ride) of hard currency.
#6,
No, not that guy. The other one. Click on the link.
#12,
Of course South Korea had to pay the Russians. Americans usually technological contributions to their space program before accepting to train foreign astronauts, Russians prefer cash.
It wouldn’t have taken so long to train her if she was just a ‘space tourist’. Did you expect the Russians to make her a pilot?
Re: This Post
STFU
ktnx
I hope they can crack the windows on that shuttle.
#12
Best comment !!!
Did anybody else notice on the satellite link-up last night after she arrived at the ISS that they seemed to only have four headsets for the six crew members? This meant that two of the crew had to smile politely while the other four joined in on the conversation. What’s up with that? Six crew members, four headsets, sounds like a campervan holiday to the Black Sea.
This space radiation that she is exposing the Korean native orchids to, is that special radiation that is only found in space? Does it cause special mutations that are only possible with space radiation?
If I had given it even a moments thought I might have realised that it is a commercial venture. Expect to see Cymbidium Soyeonii in the shops soon.
Before I sound too negative, I think it is absolutely great that she is so obviously thrilled to be up there. Congratulations Soyeon!
Cosmic rays, perhaps? They’re not necessarily only found in space, but they sure are more plentiful up there.
#19,
I can already imagine the musical.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/LittleShopAlbum.jpg
#21 I’m not an expert but I wouldn’t have thought that the effect of cosmic rays is any much different from the type of ionising radiation you can find in your average well-equipped hospital. The high energy part of the spectrum probably isn’t much use for genetic mutations.
Unless of course, travelling across billions of miles of empty space embues the particles with some mystical properties. Perhaps one could have the homeopathy of cosmic rays. Now there’s a money spinning idea.
Cool if we actually could use the space trip to talk about some real science.
The high energy part of the cosmic ray spectrum is actually very interesting, in that it far exceeds any of the energies that are currently accessible on Earth. That’s one area where one really could do some useful experiments with the ISS. If one could actually accurately measure the energy flux of cosmic rays and could compare it with ground-based measurements of the same flux, then one could test whether interaction with the Earth’s atmosphere leads to exotic physics such as mini black holes or dark matter production. Then one could put statistical bounds on some of the crazy missing energy scenarios that people want to test for in the LHC.
But somehow I doubt testing for extra dimensions is the point of the orchid mutation experiment.
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