New market opportunity?

[IanP]

Hi Vickie!

As an occasional backpacker I was intrigued to read your descriptions of your food because it appears (superficially, at least) to share many properties with the range of packaged foods available to backpackers. Many of the requirements seem the same - not too heavy or large-size, nutritious, easy to prepare, and able to last a long time at ambient temperatures. I wondered if you had looked at any of the backpacker foods available (especially the more recent offerings that are a dramatic improvement on the horrors of the past) and perhaps even considered this market as a possible source of extra revenue for your department?!? I have a feeling many backpackers would love the chance of buying food designed for astronauts and carrying the NASA brand!

[jhlurie]

IanP, I'm curious. Since NASA itself doesn't really appear to "design" food (it's more like they certify or choose it), are you suggesting a simple marketing tie-in between NASA and the companies who already make these? Are you suggesting that NASA actually should be using foods made by existing backpacker food companies in the space program? Or are you suggesting that whatever foodstuffs NASA is already using, be repackaged as backpacker food?

[IanP]

Hi Jon,

From Vickie's answers to earlier questions I thought that her team did develop their own food these days, in addition to using food selected from the market and adapted for use. I should probably have made my questions clearer, but I was asking two things - firstly, have they looked at the existing backpacker foods, either to use directly or for adaptation; and secondly, if they had considered repackaging their food for sale to backpackers, since they would seem to be a market looking for many of the properties in food products that her team have spent so long developing. I hadn't thought of the marketing tie-in approach but that could work too, providing the packaging and substance of the food remains suitable for backpacking (and backpackers are a demanding bunch - just a NASA logo ain't gonna cut it). It may not be a big enough market to justify the cost of entry, but I just thought it would be pretty cool to sit on the top of a mountain somewhere eating the same food as an astronaut!

[jhlurie]

This may come down to interpreting what "design" means--and I suppose Vicki is the right one to make that call. It's my impression that by no means is all of the food commercial, but that the NASA's "design" role is similar to what they do with most technology. They adapt and certify things more than they invent.

[Vickie Kloeris]

We do use some of the freeze-dried items that are commercially available for backpacking. However, many of these items do not work because they require boiling water to fully rehydrate and our water does not get that hot on the Shuttle. As far as trying to market the custom freeze-dried foods that we produce, that's not a very viable option. We do not have the production capacity that would be required to market things commercially. We would actully have to buy more equipment and hire more personnel to go commercial and that just doesn't make sense.