想想看，如果宇航員能在太空烘焙面包，也不失為一件幸福的事。對(duì)于視面包如命的德國人來說，就更是如此了。盡管困難重重，不過這樣的美夢(mèng)即將實(shí)現(xiàn)，因?yàn)橛袀€(gè)為宇航員著想的貼心德國人開啟了太空面包烘焙計(jì)劃。讓我們拭目以待吧！

Crumbs1） may seem harmless here on Earth， but they can be a hazard in microgravity2） — they could get in an astronaut&apos；s eye， or get inhaled3）， causing someone to choke4）. Crumbs could even float into an electrical panel， burn up5） or cause a fire.

That&apos；s part of the reason why it was a very big deal in 1965 when John Young pulled a corned beef6） sandwich out of his pocket as he was orbiting the earth with Gus Grissom.

"Where did that come from？" Grissom asked Young.

"I brought it with me，" Young said.

Young took a bite and then microgravity took over， spreading bread crumbs throughout the spacecraft.

Today， instead of bread， astronauts usually eat tortillas7）： They don&apos；t crumble in the same way and they&apos；re easy to hold with one hand as the astronaut floats about.

But for many Germans， tortillas just don&apos；t cut it8）. So when a man named Sebastian Marcu heard that German Astronaut Alexander Gerst is returning to the International Space Station in 2018， that got him thinking： "Shouldn&apos；t we do something to enable him to have fresh bread in space？"

Bread is a really big deal in Germany—there are thousands of variations of different kinds of bread there. To Marcu， a German astronaut in space without fresh bread seemed like a preventable problem.

Marcu was working in the space sector， and he and his friend， an engineer， started a company called Bake in Space in March 2017.

They&apos；re partnered with the German Aerospace Center， which is basically Germany&apos；s NASA. Their goal is to make an oven that can successfully bake dough on the International Space Station by 2018.

But there are a lot of obstacles that make baking in space difficult.

First， the oven needs to function on about a tenth of the power an oven here on earth does. And it&apos；s pretty much impossible to preheat the oven， because if it gets hot and then the door is opened， a giant hot air bubble could leave the oven and float into the spacecraft.

"It could just sit there in mid air and an astronaut could basically burn himself if he flies through it，" Marcu says.

Which is clearly not ideal.

Then there&apos；s the problem of the dough—at low heat， bread has to bake for a longer period of time， but the longer it bakes， the drier it gets. And crumbling must be avoided at all costs because of the havoc9） bread wreaks10） in space.endprint

Despite all the technical challenges， Marcu predicts that his company will be able to have Alexander Gerst bake the first loaf of bread in space next year.

"It&apos；s not just about making one German astronaut happy with fresh bread，" Marcu explains. "There&apos；s really a deeper meaning to bread in space."

He says bread is ubiquitous. It&apos；s made its way onto our dinner tables， into our religion， our slang. Breadwinner and dough stand for money， for wellbeing， for quality of life. We break bread with strangers as a gesture of good faith.

"Well， it would definitely be a big symbol of peace to break bread with an alien life form I think，" he says.

But most importantly to Marcu， freshly baked bread in space will offer astronauts a little slice of home.

在地球上，面包屑似乎并無害處，但在失重情況下，面包屑卻是危險(xiǎn)品——它們能進(jìn)入宇航員的眼里，或是被吸入口鼻引起嗆咳。面包屑甚至能飄進(jìn)配電板里，燒毀配電板或引起火災(zāi)。

這就是為什么在1965年，當(dāng)約翰·楊和加斯·格里森在宇宙飛船上繞地航行的時(shí)候，楊從口袋中掏出一塊腌牛肉三明治是一件非常嚴(yán)峻的事情。

“這東西從哪兒弄的？”格里森問。

“我?guī)蟻淼??！睏罨卮鹫f。

楊咬了一口三明治，然后微重力就控制了一切，使面包屑飄到了宇宙飛船的各個(gè)角落。

如今，宇航員們一般不吃面包，而是吃墨西哥玉米薄餅。這種餅不像面包那樣掉屑，而且它們也利于宇航員在飄行的時(shí)候用一只手抓握。

但對(duì)很多德國人來說，墨西哥玉米薄餅并不合心意。所以，當(dāng)一個(gè)名叫塞巴斯蒂安·馬庫的人聽說德國宇航員亞歷山大·格爾斯特將于2018年返回國際空間站時(shí)，他不由想到：“難道我們就不能想想辦法，讓他在太空中吃到現(xiàn)烤的面包？”

在德國，面包可不是件小事兒——這里有成千上萬種面包。在馬庫看來，德國宇航員在太空中吃不到現(xiàn)烤面包這個(gè)問題，似乎是可以避免的。

馬庫從事太空行業(yè)，他和他的一位工程師朋友在 2017年3月成立了一家名叫太空烘焙的公司。

他們與德國航空航天中心（基本就相當(dāng)于德國的NASA）一起合作，目標(biāo)是在2018年之前制作出一種可在國際空間站上成功烤出面包的烤箱。

但是，要在太空烤面包，困難重重。

首先，這個(gè)烤箱的功率只能約是地球上烤箱的十分之一。而且預(yù)熱烤箱幾乎不可能，因?yàn)樵诳鞠漕A(yù)熱之后，一開烤箱門，就會(huì)有一個(gè)巨大的熱氣泡跑出來，飄到飛船里。

馬庫說：“這個(gè)氣泡會(huì)就那樣停留在半空，宇航員飛過氣泡的時(shí)候基本上會(huì)被燙傷?！?/p>

這顯然不夠理想。

接下來還有面團(tuán)的問題——在低溫下，面包必須烘烤更長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間，但是烘烤的時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，面團(tuán)就會(huì)變得越干燥。而出現(xiàn)面包屑這種情況是必須不惜一切代價(jià)避免的，因?yàn)槊姘荚谔罩袝?huì)帶來巨大災(zāi)難。

盡管面臨種種技術(shù)難題，馬庫預(yù)計(jì)，他的公司明年能讓亞歷山大·格爾斯特在空間站成功烤出第一個(gè)面包。

“這不僅僅關(guān)系到一位德國宇航員能否心滿意足地吃上新鮮面包的問題，” 馬庫解釋說，“在太空烤出面包其實(shí)還有更大的意義?！?/p>

他說，面包是隨處可見的東西。它走上了我們的餐桌，進(jìn)入了我們的宗教、俚語?！皰赍X養(yǎng)家的人”和“面團(tuán)”象征著錢，象征著幸福，象征著生活品質(zhì)。我們會(huì)把跟陌生人分享面包當(dāng)做一種善意的舉動(dòng)。

“這么說吧，我覺得，要是我們能跟外星人分享面包，那絕對(duì)是和平的一大象征。” 他說。

不過，在馬庫看來，最重要的是，新鮮出爐的太空面包會(huì)給宇航員帶來一絲家的溫暖。

2015年8月10日，美國宇航局（NASA）官網(wǎng)公布了一組圖片，稱生活在國際空間站內(nèi)的宇航員們首次品嘗了他們?cè)谔帐е丨h(huán)境下種植出來的紫葉生菜。NASA官方表示，此次的VEGGIE （素食者）計(jì)劃是NASA首次嘗試在太空中栽培出供應(yīng)宇航員食用的農(nóng)作物，它標(biāo)志著該空間站蔬菜培育試驗(yàn)取得階段性成功，也可看做是載人飛船前往火星的行程中又邁出了重要一步。

“If we&apos；re ever going to go to Mars someday， which we will， but whenever that is， we&apos；re going to have to have a spacecraft that is more sustainable in terms of food supply. On the way to Mars， and on the way back， we won&apos；t be able to get resupplies. We will have to be completely self-sufficient. Having the ability to grow our own food is a big step in that direction.”

—Scott Kelly （美國宇航員）

早期載人航天事業(yè)發(fā)展階段，食品都被制成牙膏狀，以擠壓的方式食用。后來飛行試驗(yàn)發(fā)現(xiàn)失重條件下并不影響食物吞咽，所以對(duì)太空食物進(jìn)行了改善。

如今的太空食品總共有五大類：復(fù)水食品（主要以湯和早餐食品為主。復(fù)水食品是事先經(jīng)過脫水處理，進(jìn)食前必須再向食物中注入一定量的水）、熱穩(wěn)定食品（指經(jīng)過加熱殺菌后保存在罐子里或封裝在柔性袋內(nèi)的肉食和魚）、中等濕度食品（如桃干、梨干等果脯）、輻照食品（指經(jīng)過輻射滅活和殺菌的食品）和天然食品（指沒經(jīng)過處理的食品，如水果、醬料等）。

因此，不論是歐美還是中國，宇航員們的飲食都得到了很大的改善。在如今中國宇航員的一日三餐中，還包括宮保雞丁、魚香肉絲、土豆牛肉、香辣豆干等菜肴，他們甚至還品上了茶。

1. crumb [kr?m] n. 食物碎屑；面包屑；糕餅屑

2. microgravity [?ma?kr?? ?ɡr?v?ti] n. 微重力（指由弱引力引起的失重狀態(tài)）

3. inhale [?n?he?l] vt. 吸氣；吸入（煙等）

4. choke [t???k] vi. 嗆到；窒息

5. burn up： 燒毀

6. corned beef： 腌牛肉，用鹽水和其他調(diào)料腌制的牛肉，通常以罐頭的形式售賣。

7. tortilla [t???ti??] n. （用玉米面和雞蛋制成的）墨西哥玉米薄餅

8. not cut it： （問題的解決辦法）不令人滿意

9. havoc [?h?v?k] n. 大破壞；大混亂

10. wreak [ri?k] vt. 造成（混亂或破壞）endprint