Freeze dried or frozen: Thanksgiving from the ISS to the South Pole
- Published
Joe Acaba, Commander Randy Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli and Mark Vande Hei discuss the food they'll be eating for Thanksgiving
If you're not in the USA, finding all the ingredients to create the perfect Thanksgiving dinner isn't always easy, but for teams on the International Space Station (ISS) and at the Antarctic, marking the holiday presents its own problems.
If you can't cook a Turkey in space what will those on board the ISS be eating?
The six members of the ISS Expedition 53 crew, external currently has three Americans - Randy Bresnik, Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei - who will be marking Thanksgiving this weekend with their Russian and Italian colleagues.
The three and Italian Paolo Nespoli spoke earlier this month about their ISS Thanksgiving celebrations, external.
With food on the space station packaged into bulk overwrap bags, referred to as BOBs, then packed into cargo transfer bags for delivery to the space station, it may not be easy to get the food you want, however each astronaut also gets to bring nine personalised BOBs which they can share.
On the menu this year, in space:
Mashed potato
Turkey
Corn bread
Candied yams
Cran-apple dessert
They'll also be keeping in touch with their families via phone calls, but according to Commander Bresnik it's their "space family" that makes celebrating Thanksgiving on the ISS special.
Despite having all the ingredients of the traditional dinner, Bresnik added "the thought of a home cooked meal sounded really appealing."
Frozen turkey
Catering for six on the ISS is a challenge but how about feeding around a thousand people in the Antarctic when the nearest grocery store is more than 2,000 miles away? That is the unique challenge faced by the US Antarctic Program, external (USAP).
Like the crew of the ISS, the USAP, based in McMurdo Station on the southern tip of Ross Island, will be celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.
The McMurdo station has a harbour, landing strips on sea ice and shelf ice, and a helicopter pad
The station is home to 903 people, with another 100 or so based on field camps across the Antarctic.
The station has a harbour, three airfields, over 100 buildings, two cash machines, but no supermarket.
With no supplies immediately on hand the catering team works with supplies which all require a long shelf life, so tinned, dried and, of course, frozen food is common.
On the menu this year, in Antarctica:
60 turkeys
25 gallons (114 litres) of gravy
1,700 dinner rolls
225 pies (including pumpkin, apple and pecan)
Dinner will be served in three sittings, every two hours, with 300 people at each sitting.
The team at Lake Hoare Camp - one of the field camps on the Antarctic celebrating Thanksgiving in 2016