You’ve heard of Tang and freeze dried ice cream when it comes to food for our astronauts while they are in space. Now some high school students are trying their best to create nutritional food for the men and women who go where no one has gone before!
Six finalist teams will be competing against each other in the space nutrition category where they are trying to cook up a nutrition bar for astronauts to eat while in space. The winning team will have their nutrition bar produced as well as win awards such as grants and a Zero Gravity Flight! The students involved with the competition have to learn how to make nutrition bars as well as how to get the most nutrition into a bar along with the guidelines for calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates.
You may be thinking that there is only one type of nutrition bar, but that’s not true. There are actually three types. The Extruded Bar, based on protein or fruit, is like Powerbars or Balance Bars and are made from a blend of dry powder ingredients and a syrup to bind it together. Chewy granola bars are another type of bar, composed of grains (oats for instance), nuts, fruit, crisps, etc. and then mixed with dry proteins, fibers, vitamins and minerals to give it the nutrition needed and a syrup to bind it. The last is baked bars, such as Clif bars and Odwalla bars, which are basically a mix of both extruded and chewy granola bars and then baked after.
Not only do they have to be all of the above but they must also be able to be stored at room temperature.
If you’re curious about the teams that are finalists they are AM rocks, Team Delicious, GBN Gadget, Team Rocket, Space Girls, and Magan Cline which you can find more about on the Conrad Foundation’s Spirit of Innovation Awards website.
You can check out team videos, photos, blog posts and vote for your favorite team idea all the while supporting these young minds in their nutritious endeavors!
Source Chron
Photo by Matthew Simantov
Tue, Mar 30, 2010
News