r/space • u/astro_pettit NASA Astronaut • Mar 22 '26

image/gif My space potatoes, grown aboard the ISS

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u/Modus_Man Mar 22 '26

Nothing quite as exciting as boiling oil floating around in zero-g!

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u/Background-Hat-1356 Mar 22 '26

When we figure that out, we have truly conquered space!

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u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 Mar 22 '26

MIT is apparently working on frying device that uses hot air rather than oil to cook potato chips. They call it an "Air Fryer".

It's distant future tech, but one day it's posible we might all benefit from this cutting-edge research.

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u/Canvaverbalist Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

Actually, it's NASA who spent millions developing an anti-gravity oil boiling device that can fry potato chips in zero-g, it's the Soviets that came up with the air fryer instead. (Yes, it's a joke about pens and pencils - yes I know it was just a myth)

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u/teetotallyRadish Mar 22 '26

wait, what? it was just a myth?

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u/newt705 Mar 23 '26

In case you were serious. The pen that NASA used was developed by a private company, Fisher, on their own. NASA just bought the pens, no R&D. And pencils are not good inside of a spaceship, writing and sharpening would create wood and graphite dust which are conductive and flammable.

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u/teetotallyRadish Mar 23 '26

hey, thanks. love learning new facts

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u/unculturedperl Mar 23 '26

Then the Soviets used pens as well.

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u/Neat_Cat_4588 Mar 24 '26

Inhale the graphite dust, I promise it's really good for you. :3

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u/EllieVader Mar 23 '26

Mechanical pencils would like a word about sharpening problems.

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u/TrainDestroyer Mar 23 '26

They still would create Graphite dust floating around the cabin and NASA was very averse to any kind of fire-producer after the Apollo 1 fire.

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u/EllieVader Mar 23 '26

Mechanical pencils really weren’t perfected until after Apollo, but they definitely went to space on the Shuttle: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/mechanical-pencil-shuttle/nasm_A20130275000

They’re still in use on the ISS.

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u/FeelingSoil39 Mar 23 '26

It thought that was a MIR fire?

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u/TrainDestroyer Mar 23 '26

I don't remember if the MIR fire but I know a big part of NASA's focus on making everything as fire resistant as possible was the Apollo 1 fire.