Astronauts are the classic captive audience when it comes to meal choices during space missions. But that doesn’t mean they have to put up with tasteless fare.

Although fine dining is out of reach, food options have come a long way since the first moon landing in 1969.

Tasty dishes are more essential than ever with the growing frequency of prolonged space missions, the prospect of manned flights to the moon resuming soon and plans to eventually establish a human presence on Mars.

Meals consumed by astronauts on the International Space Station come in two categories: the standard menu distributed by the United States and Russia, and bonus food. The latter are items selected by the astronauts themselves. The bonus menu accounts for 15 percent of all dishes consumed on the ISS.

One mission objective of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is to ensure that Japanese astronauts are able to go about their activities in space with as little stress as possible. This extends to the development of foodstuffs specially prepared for them.

Food suppliers are required to provide vacuum-packed meals that have a shelf life at normal temperature of at least 18 months. They must take account of the zero gravity conditions aboard the space station and create dishes where powder and liquids don’t fly off and splatter precision equipment, triggering mechanical failures. Containers have to use unburnable material.

Space-oriented treats certified by JAXA have been available since 2007. Among those 50 specialties are packaged curry, yakitori, canned mackerel, “kinpira” burdock root and simmered “hijiki” seaweed.

WARTIME RATIONS

Emergency meal maker Onisi Foods Co. based in Tokyo’s Minato Ward is licensed to provide four products. They include Alpha Rice and another offering using rice and edible wild plants.

Its Alpha Rice is based on the wartime military ration developed by the company’s founder to provide Japanese troops with cooked rice just by adding water.

Over the years, it gained popularity as emergency food in case of natural disasters and as food for mountaineers. The rice product is said to have a shelf life of five years.

Alpha Rice for both astronauts and ordinary consumers is produced the same way with emergency circumstances in mind. The difference is the variant of rice used.

Body fluids shift to the upper part of the body in the no-gravity environment in space, resulting in nasal congestion and a dulled sense of taste.

For this reason, a strain of rice with a smaller amount of amylose, a substance marked by a single chain of grape sugar, is used for food consumed away from Earth. The low-amylose variety is as glutinous as “mochigome” sticky rice. It is said that sweetness unique to rice becomes strong.

“We pursued the best flavor so astronauts will be able to receive energy by munching on rice as they do at home,” said Hideaki Ito, manager of the product development department of Onisi Foods and a board member of  the enterprise.

Famous for its Cup Noodle brand, Nissin Foods Holdings Co. started creating dishes for space conditions even before the introduction of the certification system.

According to Nissin representatives, the company’s founder, Momofuku Ando, viewed space as the perfect arena to “launch” its products.

A product named Space Ram that came about by adjusting the taste of Cup Noodle was delivered to the ISS in 2005.

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, a big fan of ramen, tried it on the ISS during his first space mission. Noguchi, now 58, told a live broadcast he was “stunned by how well the aroma of ramen available on Earth is reproduced here.”

The noodles were shorter and bundled into bite-size blocks with the aim of hindering the soup from escaping and floating as droplets.

With the thick broth clinging to the noodles, the dish is easy to wolf down. That, said Nissin officials, brings out the full flavor of ramen.

Nissin said the technique had already been established as part of the company’s instant noodle treatment technology, making its development of space food possible.

“The technology can be used for emergency foodstuffs as well as meals for consumers in need of nursing care,” noted a Nissin representative.