Microgravity BBQ setup
The development of microgravity cuisine is an interesting topic, especially when it comes to transferring simple processes like the successful thermochemical processing of muscle tissues (e.g. barbecuing of meat).
A man, who is a butcher and owns a small restaurant, and his friend, an astronaut qualified as an aerospace engineer, decide to do something nobody has done before: to host a barbecue for the crew of the International Space Station. Knowing that most of the food is provided in dehydrated or toothpaste form and a grill party would greatly improve the morale of the ISS crew, which is worried about their jobs due to yet another NASA budget cutback, mission control agrees and tasks the butcher-engineer duo with the design of the MEAT (Microgravity Edible Animal biomass Transformer) module.
The following clarifications are made:
A barbecue is a session of meat preparation, whereas the meat (mostly animal muscle and fat tissue) is altered in its consistency, taste and digestibility by means of prolonged contact with a strongly heated surface.
The meat, which is that of freshly slaugtered pigs, cows, sheep and chickens, may be transported to the ISS in refrigerated form but is otherwise unaltered. There are some sausages included in the package (a total mass of 50 kilograms). The meat is brought to the station ready for preparation, e.g. correctly cut up by trained butchers.
The MEAT module should be brought to the ISS by a small spaceplane along with the meat and assembled by means of EVA and Canadarm.
The module should be reusable.
It is up to you to decide how much meat is prepared in a "batch". Generally, the preparation time for a normal meal should not exceed 3 hours (from freezer to plate).
An astronaut with technical knowledge (and a passion for cooking) should be able to operate and program the module without extensive mission control input. The preparation time for a spontaneous BBQ should not exceed 24 hours.
The taste of the products of the MEAT module should be at least extensively similar to that of meat prepared under normal conditions.
The by-products (smoke, coal) should be dealt with properly.
Speculative technology expected to be avaliable in the aerospace sector by 2025 may be used.
Your task is to draft a design concept of the MEAT module and describe its function, under observation of above clarifications.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/110104. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
A good BBQ has a few key attributes (aside from starting with quality raw meat, which has already been arranged):
High and/or long-lasting heating. High heat for searing steaks and for cooking up burgers. Lower but longer-lasting heat for roasting a whole chicken, ribs and other large (especially thicker) items.
Smoke. Bad for you, but adds flavor. This can be from charcoal but with a has BBQ it is from meat fat/drippings that burn up.
Intense flavors - e.g., BBQ sauce. Sauce can always be added after cooking, but a good sauce on the meat while it is being BBQed can really make things great.
What you don't actually need is fire. Which is a good thing, because fire and space stations don't mix well. A space station with an uncontrolled fire - and any fire can become uncontrolled very quickly - is deadly. In addition to the possibility of burning up the station, the oxygen required would be a major drain on station resources.
But BBQ and broiling aren't so different. So we skip the traditional fire and figure out how to broil large (relatively) quantities in a space station that has limited power. That's where the arm, airlock, etc. come in.
The MEAT Module consists of a large sealed metal box. The inner section contains a series of adjustable metal grill racks. Unlike on Earth where the meat is simply placed on the rack and possibly covered (but with the cover several inches from the meat), in order to BBQ in microgravity every piece of meat is placed between two grills. That keeps everything in place while conveniently providing the all important "grill marks" on both sides of the meat without human intervention. Which is a good thing because...
The MEAT Module is loaded with meat on the racks. The racks are installed on a motorized rotisserie for even heating. The MEAT Module is sealed, pressure-tested and then sent out through an airlock for the Canadarm to grab it and place it in sunlight. However, while the MEAT Module has a large glass window on one side to admit sunlight for heating, the key is the second part of the system - the MEAT Amplified Glass Natural Integrated Furnace, Yaw-stabilized or MAGNIFY (OK, that's a mouthful, not easy to come up with a good Y word) which is a large glass lens that focuses sunlight into the MEAT window in order to produce heat levels necessary to BBQ meat. Fat/drippings from the meat will contact the inside of the MEAT Module and smoke pretty much instantly, providing the unhealthy but oh-so-yummy smoky flavor of BBQ. The MEAT Module window will include an automated windshield wiper of sorts to scrape drippings off the window during cooking to prevent blockage that would impair the effectiveness of MAGNIFY.
After the meat is fully cooked, the astronauts use Canadarm to disconnect MEAT from MAGNIFY and retrieve the MEAT module and enjoy their dinner.
Prep time is minimal. Figure one hour to prepare all the meat, including plenty of sauce (note that the sauce has to be on the thick side due to microgravity, but it can be spicy), another hour to load the MEAT Module and get it into the airlock. 30 minutes to deploy. Another hour or so to cook, more for ribs, less for burgers (after all this trouble, I'd go for the good stuff) and 30 minutes to disconnect, retrieve and open.
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