No chips in space! Scientists say it’s impossible to fry foods on ISS (2024)

• Experiment began when Russian cosmonaut said he craved 'fried potatoes'
  
• But lack of convection to transport heat in space would make chips soggy
  
• At force of 3-g, however, fried chips have been shown to form a perfect crispy crust in around half the usual time

By Ellie Zolfa*gharifard

Published: 16:06 GMT, 30 December 2013 | Updated: 16:09 GMT, 30 December 2013

If ever you needed comfort food, it would probably be when you’re isolated in the vast expanse of space.

Far away from loved ones and anything that resembles home, astronauts have long craved the type of food that can usually cure a hangover.

So when a Russian cosmonaut said that what he’d really like on the International Space Station (ISS) was ‘fried potatoes’, Greek researchers set about to make it happen.

Their initial experiments, funded by the European Space Agency, revealed that it was possible to make chips at forces three times the normal force of gravity.

But in a recent paper, the researchers said that despite their early success, fried chips would in fact be soggy if they were made on the ISS.

Researcher Thodoris Karapantsios began his experiments by using a giant centrifuge to cook chips under conditions of hypergravity, which is when the force of gravity is more than that on Earth.

He found that at a force of 3-g, which is three times the gravity of Earth, the potatoes formed a perfect crispy crust in around half the usual time.

While the chips may not have tasted out of this world, they tasted as good as those fried normally.

The professor, from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, said the same effect could be achieved by creating an industrial fryer that spins once a second or a home fryer that rotates twice a second, and he plans to patent a design.

At the time, Professor Karapantsios said he suspects that the potatoes would boil rather than fry in space and added : ‘It will be important to know whether we can fry on Mars or the moon.’

But as Philip Ball at BBC Future noted, fried chips would be problematic on ISS. This is because for frying and boiling, convection is an essential part of the process.

The way the liquid, such as oil and water, circulates effects the rate at which foods heat up. On Earth, the hot liquid at the base of a pan rises because it’s not as dense as the cooler liquid above.

This convection won’t happen in zero gravity causing soggy fries without a crust.

So while we may be getting closer to unlocking the secrets of Mars, we’re still no closer to discovering how to make French fries in space.