What is good: ideas and research

Well this project is taking shape now, at least in my own head but I haven't shared much so far on my blogs, so this will be an update posting.

My initial idea that 'being an astronaut is good' caused me some problems when it came to answering 'Why?' There were lots of ways I could take this, but the way I wanted to investigate was that space travel is good because it shows us an optimistic future and expands the horizons for humanity. I have researched the enthusiasm the public in general had for the apollo program in the 1950's and 60's. There seems less interest now in human space travel, but actually it could be a dawning of a new age in human space travel with the advent of space tourism, this time Anyone can go into space (if they have enough money) not just state selected astronauts. So this brings me to the direction for me project: Products that a space tourism company could sell to supplement and create interest in trips into space.

So far I have looked at space food, and space clothing as two obvious directions for products that can be sold for use on earth as well as in space, I think there should also be some sort of promotion attached to these so people could collect tokens, or enter draws for a trip to space with every purchase.

So first up, space food research. I have found plenty of references to actual space food that was marketed to the public in the 60's and 70's. Most notable, the American drink 'Tang' has long traded off links to NASA: details on wikipedia Even more interesting is the story of 'Space Food Sticks'. These were a energy bar type snack developed for use by astronauts. They were also sold to the public and were popular for a while before disappearing from shelves in the late 70's. Interestingly, these have recently been successfully relaunched by a new company and can now be bought online. See history pages at http://spacefoodsticks.com/

Its great to see a product that trades on enthusiasm for human space travel is out there being sold. Redesigning a food product like this to bring it up to date and branding it to a space tourism company is one idea I am developing.

Original space food sticks advert c.1970