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back to article NASA offers space shuttle food and tiles to schools

Food and heat-resistant tiles once destined for orbit will soon end up in the grubby little hands of schoolchildren, in a scheme aimed at inspiring a future generation of astronauts and space engineers. NASA are selling off dehydrated space food and shuttle tiles built to resist temperatures of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to …

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  1. Pete 43
    Go

    Do they have an ebay store?

    1 0
    1. Suburban Inmate
      Reply Icon

      Not officially.

      A few boxes just fell off the back of a crawler-transporter.

      2 0
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Please sir, can I have some Tang?

    0 0
  3. C-N
    Boffin

    Even though a title is not required it is included out of respect for tradition.

    I have tried the food, and I also have one of these tiles. The easy way to distinguish the two is to conduct a little test. Unfortunately, this is not a definitive test. Give each sample a taste. Now, heat both samples up to over 1000 degrees or so. Fahrenheit, Centigrade, doesn't matter. After both samples have cooled. Make a second taste test. The heat tiles taste almost as good on the second test. The heat tiles should exhibit no discoloration, this is not always true for the food. The food may or may not be slightly discolored, and usually tastes much worse in the second test. After you've done this a few times, you'll get an intuitive feel and often be able to identify them upon visual inspection.

    4 0
  4. maclovinz

    Minus Texas...

    They get nothing....

    :D

    0 0
  5. Alister

    "a future generation of astronauts and space engineers."

    I hope they don't expect to get out of Low Earth Orbit in their lifetime, cos I don't think Nasa will be going anywhere much.

    1 0
    1. hplasm
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      I hope they don't expect

      to get Into LEO in their lifetime.... the will is dwindling.

      0 0
  6. Figgus

    When I was in 6th grade the shuttle was just coming into existence. A few guys from NASA came to my school to give a presentation and we all got "samples", pieces/parts that were machined just out of spec or whatnot.

    Talk about a great way to drum up interest in the space program!!! Of course, I wonder what the motivation is for it now, given that there is no space program...

    1 0
  7. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Alien

    I had me hands on one of them tiles, once

    when they used them in BBC TV News for the first shuttle flight. They made me give it back, though, the meanies... came face to face with another years later in Florida, and they wouldn't let me keep that one, either.

    NASA has no sense of fun.

    1 0
  8. Glen 1
    Go

    could also sell them to JML

    market the tiles as cookware

    0 1
  9. Mike Flex
    FAIL

    In my lifetime...

    ...the US has gone from no manned spaceflight to walking on the Moon to LEO only and back to no manned spaceflight.

    Maintaining progress, it's not roc..., oh, it is.

    4 0
  10. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Why not give them books on spaceflight and engineering?

    Having "Digital Apollo" and "Rocket Propulsion Elements" in the Harry Potter laden school library would be awesome.

    On second thoughts, reading about Rocket Propulsion might get some youngsters on the terror watch list or worse.

    On third thoughts, are there any school libraries anymore?

    0 0
  11. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Space food?

    So whats the difference to just buying regular M&Ms and putting them in a $20 costco vac bag sealer?

    Other than these probably cost $1000/bag by the time Nasa is done with them.

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  12. Nights_are_Long

    I am not sure but isnt the orangina bag a direct copy of a nasa water bag?

    I must admit I have a addiction to freeze dried ice-cream and have had it for many years yummy stuff.

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  13. Colin 5
    FAIL

    Pedant alert

    "The tiles were built to resist temperatures of 3,000°F (1,650°C) created by the friction of space shuttles flying at 17,500mph as they re-enter the Earth's thickening atmosphere."

    The main cause of the temperature rise is isentropic heating in the shock wave.

    Friction plays a minor role.

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