MUMBAI, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Indian space agency will evaluate a menu of around 30 dishes for its astronauts proposed to be sent to space as part of the country's first human spaceflight mission named "Gaganyaan", media reports said on Wednesday.
The ready-to-eat dishes including regular Indian cuisine like suji halwa and chicken biryani. They also have an elaborate spread ranging from fruit juices to energy bars developed by the Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), a Mysuru-based lab under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said a report by Times of India newspaper.
Last week, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced its plans to launch its third lunar mission Chandrayaan 3 in 2021 following approval from the government along with Gaganyaan in 2022.
Four men from the Indian Air Force have been selected to undergo training in Russia from the third week of January for the Gaganyaan mission. However, the Indian space agency is not dependent on Russia for the food menu and will itself along with its astronauts evaluate the choice of food.
"It's now for them (ISRO and astronauts) to finalise which dishes they would like and then we can even make modifications. Apart from the food, we are also tasked with providing food-warmer technology, stainless steel cutlery and a waste disposal pack," said the news report quoting Anil Semwal, director of the DFRL.
DFRL is also tasked with providing food-warmer technology, stainless steel cutlery and a waste disposal pack as the packaging needs to be modified to suit the no-gravity situation in space.
