Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recently tested an oven they used to bake five chocolate chip cookies.
We now know the results of that experiment: the cookies took a lot longer to bake in space than on Earth.
The cookies that came out best required two hours of baking time inside the International Space Station. The baking time for cookies on Earth is generally only about 20 minutes.
The cookies returned to Earth earlier this month aboard a SpaceX-built spacecraft that splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The cookies are the first food baked in space from raw food materials. They remain frozen in a laboratory in Houston, Texas.
The American company Nanoracks designed and built the cookie oven. Hilton DoubleTree hotels supplied the cookie dough.
The makers of the oven did expect some difference in the baking time in space, but they were surprised that that difference was so large.
"There's still a lot to look into to figure out really what's driving that difference, but definitely a cool result," said Mary Murphy. She is with the company Nanoracks, which is based in Texas.
Murphy said the baking results will continue to be examined in order to better understand why space baking took so much longer. In addition, researchers will study the effectiveness of the baking tray, which was designed to work in microgravity conditions.
The five chocolate chip cookies were frozen when they were sent to space. Each had to be baked separately in the oven.
Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano took charge of the baking experiment in December. He reported that the first cookie stayed in the oven for 25 minutes at 149 degrees Celsius. When it came out of the oven, it was seriously under-baked.
For the next two cookies, Parmitano more than doubled the baking time. Those cookies came out better, but were still under-baked.
The fourth cookie stayed in the oven for two hours, after which Parmitano was able to report success. "I can't tell you whether it's cooked all the way or not, but it certainly doesn't look like cookie dough anymore," he reported to controllers back on Earth.
For the fifth cookie, Parmitano turned the oven temperature up to 163 degrees Celsius and baked it for 130 minutes. This time, he reported the best baking results.
No one has tasted the space-traveling cookies just yet. Organizers of the experiment say additional testing will need be carried out to determine whether they are safe to eat.
最近，國際空間站（簡稱ISS）的太空人對一個烤箱進行了測試，他們用該烤箱烤制了五塊巧克力餅乾。
現在我們已經得知這項測試的結果：在太空烤餅乾的用時比地球要長得多。
在國際空間站，烤制出最好的餅乾需要兩個小時。而在地球上，烤制餅乾的時間一般只需要20分鐘。
本月初，在太空烤制的餅乾搭乘SpaceX公司的宇宙飛船返回地球，飛船濺落在太平洋上。這些餅乾是首個在太空中用原材料烘焙的食物。它們仍被冰凍在位於德克薩斯州休斯敦的實驗室中。
美國公司Nanoracks設計並製造了這個餅乾烤箱。希爾頓雙樹酒店提供了餅乾麵團。
烤箱製造商確實預料到在太空的烘焙時間會存在不同，但如此大的差別還是令他們大吃一驚。
瑪麗·墨菲表示：「我們還有很多事情要研究，這樣才能找出導致這種差異的真正原因，但肯定會是一個很酷的結果。」她在總部位於德克薩斯州的Nanoracks公司工作。
墨菲說，他們將繼續對烘焙結果進行研究，以便更好地了解太空烘焙如此費時的原因。此外，研究人員還將研究用於微重力環境中的烤盤的有效性。
這五塊巧克力餅乾被送到太空時是冰凍狀態。每一塊餅乾都必須在烤箱中進行單獨烘焙。
義大利太空人盧卡·帕米塔諾負責這項在12月進行的烘焙實驗。他報告稱，第一塊餅乾在149攝氏度的烤箱中烤制了25分鐘。但當從烤箱裡被拿出來時，這塊餅乾明顯沒有烤熟。
帕米塔諾將之後兩塊餅乾的烘焙時間增加了兩倍。這兩塊餅乾從烤箱裡出來時的情況要好一些，但仍未烤熟。
第四塊餅乾在烤箱裡烤制了兩個小時，之後帕米塔諾終於報告了成功的消息。他向地球上的控制員報告說，「我不能告訴你這塊餅乾是不是完全熟了，但它看上去肯定不再是麵團了。」
在烤制第五塊餅乾時，帕米塔諾將烤箱溫度調高到163攝氏度，烘焙時間設定為130分鐘。這次，他報告了最好的烘焙結果。
目前還沒有人品嘗過太空餅乾。這項實驗的組織者表示，還需要進行更多實驗來確定這些餅乾是否可以安全食用。