Major instant-ramen maker Nissin Food Products Co. has teamed up with the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) to develop a type of instant ramen, called "Space Ram," suitable for use in a zero-gravity environment. The noodles are nearly complete and will be carried aboard the space shuttle when Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi makes a trip into space in January 2003. If NASA, the U.S. space agency, gives its approval, ramen will be eaten in outer space for the first time ever. Nissin Chairman Momofuku Ando, who has personally guided development of these special noodles, expressed satisfaction, saying, "I tried them, and I think they're pretty good. What I wonder now is what an astronaut who eats them in space will think."

Noodles to Be Taken on Shuttle with Noguchi
Development of space ramen began when Nissin responded to a NASDA request for ideas concerning a feasibility study examining the possibility of eating Japanese food in "Kibo," the Japanese experiment module planned for the International Space Station.

The International Space Station is a collaborative effort among the United States, Russia, Japan, and 12 other countries. Construction is continuing and is expected to be completed in 2006. Kibo is scheduled to be launched and joined with the space station in 2005. At that time, Japanese astronauts will stay there for approximately three months as they assemble and attach the module, so food that is both nutritious and pleasant tasting to Japanese was deemed necessary. Many of the astronauts themselves indicated that they hoped to be able to eat noodles, so work on space ramen began.

The food that is eaten on the space shuttle and the International Space Station is subjected to rigorous screening by NASA before it is approved. In addition, its shape must conform to the cooking equipment onboard, and proper packaging is also necessary. In order for the ramen to be tasty even in the weightless environs of space, a great deal of ingenuity is needed concerning the noodles, the other ingredients, the type of soup, and the nutritional value. In order to get everything just right, Nissin assembled a research team of 10 at one of its laboratories to lay the groundwork for development, and the team is expected to complete its work soon.

Creating Soup for a Zero-gravity Environment
Space food was created in the 1960s during the era of the Apollo missions. It came in tubes, and nutrition was the overriding concern. Taste was a low priority, and the food had a poor reputation among astronauts. Later, space food came to be more similar to the food that is eaten on earth due to progress in freeze-drying technology. Now crew members can also bring aboard foods that they like, and Saitama Prefecture-born astronaut Koichi Wakata is reported to have eaten soka senbei (a kind of hard Japanese rice cracker from that area), vacuum-packed curry, and instant rice onboard the space shuttle.

To prevent water and solid pieces of food from floating around the inside of the ship, the food is kept in specially sealed packs. Water is added to the container, and some of the foods are heated in an oven onboard the vessel. The foods are usually eaten with a spoon or a straw. While such upscale items as shrimp cocktail and fish are available, they are said to taste quite different than they do on earth.

In the case of instant ramen, if noodles and soup were eaten in space the same way they are on earth, the soup would float away. If any of it got into the instruments on the ship, serious problems could result. Ironically, a humorous Nissin commercial two years ago featured someone eating instant ramen on the space shuttle; the noodles and the soup both floated away. The space ramen developed by Nissin is soy-sauce flavored and has been made in a way that will allow it to taste good even in zero gravity and that will keep the soup in place, but information on exactly how it was made and how it will be eaten is being kept under wraps until the launch of the shuttle.

Offering comment on the NASDA website, Noguchi says, "I wonder if the soup and the noodles will go well together and how it tastes. I'll let everyone know from space." Ramen aficionados may be interested in his review.