TITLE:
Frying an Egg in Space
FLIGHT DATES:
Flight Day: April 25, 2012
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
Nate Olsen, Warren Tech, Lakewood, CO
CO-INVESTIGATORS:
Brittany Thang, Jacob Treantos, Brett Grow, Dane Smith, Tyler Follett, Dnaiel Lamas, Walt Steinberg
Warren Tech and Lakewood High School students and astronaut
GOAL
Our goal is to provide an innovative cooker that is capable of frying an egg in microgravity.
OBJECTIVES
The experiment is being flown as part of the High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) program. It was designed by the students of the Drafting and Engineering Graphics, Warren Tech High School, Lakewood Colorado. The objective is to successfully fry an egg in reduced gravity and provide Astronauts with fresh food, as well as protein. The fried eggs will be a hot, home cooked meal that Astronauts may enjoy. The experiment tested whether or not it is possible to cook an egg in microgravity.
METHODS AND MATERIALS
Eggs provide protein which is a pat of a healthy diet and helps prevent muscle loss. The experiment used aluminum foil packets that contained approximately three milliliters of egg (tow milliliters of white and one milliliter of yolk) in each one. The experiment relied on a commercial cooker as our heating element to fry the egg.
RESULTS and DISCUSSIONS
The aluminum foil packets were successful in cooking eggs during microgravity. It helped us to learn how an egg cooks in reduced gravity. There were some eggs that did not cook due to different variables.
There were a few complications that made this experiment hard to test. One of the biggest challenges we encountered was that everything had to be done manually. We had to open the cooker by hand and put the egg packets in using tongs. This process could have caused the egg not to cook completely in certain packets because they may not have been inserted correctly. Another problem we faced was the surface touch temperature. We had to manually check the touch temperature while the eggs were cooking on the flight so it did not exceed the maximum limit.
During the flight, we successfully cooked the small portion of egg in reduced gravity. Our main question was whether or not the egg would cook in microgravity, and if it did, how. These questions were answered after our flight, when we opened the foils containing the eggs. We noticed that the eggs cooked along the crease of the aluminum foil packets which make the egg look somewhat stringy after cooking in microgravity.
CONCLUSION
The experiment was a success. Our goal to fry an egg in reduced gravity was met. The next step is to create an automated cooker for the egg, keeping touch temperature of the cooker and egg containment under 120° Fahrenheit.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Nate Olsen
Warren Tech
13300 West 2nd Place
Lakewood, CO 80228
303-982-0690
Cell: 303-949-1667