Homemade astronaut ice cream instructions

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[Video Link] Rachel Hobson says:

Ever since I was a kid, I've adored the crunchy/creamy sweet treat of astronaut ice cream. Now that I live just five minutes from Johnson Space Center, the freeze-dried confection is the top request when we take visiting friends to the gift shop at Space Center Houston. There is just something idyllic and iconic about the space-age dessert. Ben Krasnow shows how you can build a freeze dryer to sublimate the water from regular ice cream to turn it in to the crunchy astronaut ice cream we all know and love. Bonus point for the mix of science and sugar!

Homemade astronaut ice cream instructions

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Antinous / Moderator

Is it made from real astronauts?
- Felton / Moderator
  
  Soylent cream?
- Felton / Moderator
  
  Alternately: ”In space, no one can hear you scream for ice cream.”
- GawainLavers
  
  Don’t be silly, it just tastes like astronauts.
  - Ipo
    
    Thought it was the crunchy texture.
Bookburn

When my dad was a kid in the 60′s, freeze-drying was all the rage for preserving biological specimens. With the help of Grandpa, he hooked a vacuum to a canning jar via freezer and attempted to freeze-dry a bird for the science fair.

The way he tells it, the school cafeteria cleared out pretty fast when one of the other kids opened up the project for a closer look. He stressed the need to create a strong vacuum and have low enough temperatures to complete evacuate the water.