I think it has to do with swallowing food safely as lesser/no gravity will pose a real choking hazard with our normal autonomic gag reflex not fully being able to function. So directly squeezing a blob of food may also be prohibited and only careful little bites and sips are allowed-maybe with a spork not our chopsticks BUT as a PR stunt (and giving West-G7 the finger)show them eating WITH chopsticks and spoon Chinese style.Wouldn't it be better to have a "funnel" tip for these containers? Just squeeze the food out straight to your mouth, no need for utensils
China's Space Program News Thread
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All the CZ-1 to CZ-4 Series rockets were launched in Jiuquan, Taiyaun and Xichang. From the beginning each launch would meet this problem that the booster and first stage would drop inland.
It's all because of the cold war.
At the very first days when China started its Areospace plans, China was afraid of the attack from the sea by US Navy. The first launch centers Jiuquan was located in the north west provinces of Gansu in 1950s, so that USN attack aircrafts cannot touch it.
Then the second launch center Taiyuan was located in Shanxi province in 1967, hundreds of kilometers away from the coast. This time the threats from USSR was seriously considered.
Later when the China-USSR relation dropped to a freezing point, China decided to build a third base at Xichang, located in the South west province Sichuan, about 2800 km away from the Chian-Russian border. The construction started in 1969 when border conflicts broke out between China and USSR, but finished late in 1982 when China-USSR relation already slowly warmed up again.
So all the first three launch centers are located inland, mostly determined by military safety consideration. The launching balistics was carefully calculated so that no large cities was under the rocket's orbit. But China is a dense populated country, so it's almost imposible to avoid all the residential area.
Since 1960s, there were totally over 300 launches from these three launch center. In 1996 there was one launch accident causing mass civilian loss, six people killed and tens injured, due to early stage mechanical failure and the rocket hit the nearby residential area. But there were almost no casuality cases reported due to the normal descent of the boosters or first stages of other rockets.
Finally when China started to carry out its ambitious space exploration program in 2010s, a new low-lattitude costal launch center was built. And this time defence security is not the key factor to the choosing of location. Wenchang, located in the island province of Hainan, at about 19.5°N was selected. The first stage and boosters of rockets will fall into the west pacific, and the huge sections of the CZ-5 and future CZ-9 can be tranported by ships, never get limited by the railroad vehicles and tunnels again.
In 2021 a new launch center was planned in Xiangshan, Ningbo City, Zhejiang province, at about 29°N, which will be the main launch center for all commercial new rockets.
That is the wrong place to look for what you want.
CZ-8R is supposed to be test launched this year.
The following post may be the one. Although it could be that only the spacecraft is the resusable being tested, or both the CZ-8 1st stage and the craft. We will soon know.
Wouldn't it be better to have a "funnel" tip for these containers? Just squeeze the food out straight to your mouth, no need for utensils
I'd rather pay attention to how each kind of food package is carefully chosen for pre- and pro-biotic loads - fermented beans, resistant starch, pasta like whole grain noodles, etc. If nutritionists are paying very close attention to what kind of foods they eat up there, they wouldn't skip the chewing part of the food at all, except maybe some pure fluid. Whatever they poop up there during those 3 months, they would have kept daily samples to have extensive research on them down here on earth.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I like how they have "No Microwave" stickers on some things as if a person with the competence level of being selected as an astronaut might shove a steel can or metal package into a microwave to heat it LOLTaikonaut chow.
I won't be surprise if this stuff eventually gets sold to regular consumers so they can try "space food"
It doesn’t cost anything to put a sticker on the food packets. Even the most competent and highly trained personnel will eventually make a mistake given enough time. That time will be longer if possible ways of making mistake are clearly labeled. There are much more important things to drill into the head of an astronaut then what should not be microwaved
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Quickie
Colonel
Heck, you will likely choke yourself even back here on Earth when you start shooting liquid food into your throat.
In 0g any food or liquid that escape and float around In the air would be extremely problematic. These can get into equipment and short them out, or accidentally inhaled by personnel. If people accidentally inhale them the problem magnifies if they exhibit choking or gag reflex in response, which may cause them to release more unpleasant liquids or semi liquids back into the air to add to the floating hazards.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I should hope they don't need to be drilled as to what can and cannot go into a microwave. Cans of food at the supermarket aren't labelled "Do not microwave" because regular people are expected to have the common sense to know that nothing metal can go inside. I find it hard to believe that astronauts are less competent in this regard and need to be trained and drilled on it.
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