Applied Science

Making astronaut ice cream in my home shop (2012x2)

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In his recent post, Chris Gammell used astronaut ice cream as a fun example of how high tech innovation trickles down to consumer-level products. Seeing an image of astronaut ice cream in my G+ feed got me thinking about making some of my own. I managed to accomplish this with a harbor freight vacuum pump, some dry ice and various hoses and fittings. The process is known as freeze-drying and allows water to pass directly from ice to vapor, thus allowing the ice cream to maintain its physical structure while it is dried. What should I freeze-dry next? http://engineerblogs.org/2012/01/weekend-journal-the-trickle-down-techonomy/