 When the first astronauts flew into space, NASA wasn't entirely sure that they would be able to eat or drink, and that's what we're talking about today on Vintage Space. When the Mercury program got started, there were a lot of questions about basic human functions that NASA had. Like, would an astronaut be able to see in space, or would the lack of gravity distort his eyeballs so that he would be unable to read the control panel? The other question was eating and drinking. Swallowing, something that we do all the time, involves 30 muscles and nerves. Eating food or a liquid down these socks gets while closing the breathing tubes that you don't literally inhale your food. Whether or not this process would work the same in zero gravity was a big question facing NASA. NASA's first two missions were short. Both Al Shepard and Gus Grissom's suborbital flights were just 15 minutes long and neither astronaut ate. Johnny Glenn became the first American astronaut to actually eat in space. He had a tube of applesauce with him and swallowed it just fine. It was Scott Carpenter who became the first American astronaut to drink in space. In his suit overheated, he drank a fair bit of water to keep himself cool. And both Glenn and Carpenter reported that swallowing was not a problem in space, which was good news for NASA when sending astronauts to the moon because these astronauts would need to keep their energy up with good meals. And of course, on the moon, astronauts had drinking tubes inside their helmets so they could stay hydrated while performing their lunar EVAs. Things have gotten a little bit more sophisticated since the Apollo era, but still there are some things that just don't work in space that we're used to on Earth, like carbonated beverages. In a microgravity environment, the carbonation in a liquid like a can of coke or a beer doesn't actually float to the top like it does on Earth. The bubbles just sort of stay inside the liquid and that includes after you swallow it. So really, if you were to open a beer in space or a can of coke in space, it might just be an epic foamy disaster. But that didn't stop the Coca-Cola company from trying to build a space can. The carbonated beverage dispenser evaluation was a payload flown in 1985 to see whether or not astronauts could consume a carbonated liquid like a soda in space. Maybe a good idea to bring that particular comfort from home to space, the astronauts ultimately labeled it a failed experiment. But people are still researching how to maybe take carbonated liquids into space today. And it's something that Nincasi Brewery is thinking about in looking ahead at times when astronauts may want to toast the end of a long day with a beer. So what do you guys think? Would a lack of soda deter you from going into space at all? Let me know in the comments below and as always, if you have any questions, comments or anything that you'd like to see covered on a future episode, let me know in the comments below as well and I will add them to my ever-growing list of topics. For daily vintage space content and just general space content, be sure to follow me on Twitter as AST Vintage Space and with new episodes going up right here every single Tuesday and Friday, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.