SATED: Space Cooking Device For Astronauts
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Client Background
Our client, Ascent Technology, is an American aerospace research and development company focused on zero-gravity technologies for cooking food. They aim to revolutionize astronaut nutrition and morale by providing freshly cooked food from dry ingredients, reducing the weight and size of food stores for longer missions.
Business Challenge
The challenge of our client Ascent Technology was to achieve practical cooking in space, traditionally considered impossible. By utilizing the artificial gravity provided by centripetal acceleration, common Earth functions like boiling food, generating steam, dehydration, and distillation can be accomplished.
Key hurdles included designing a robust cooker for space conditions and integrating advanced hardware with intuitive software. JetSoftPro was tasked with developing the graphical user interface (GUI) and operational software for the SATED cooker.
Solution
The project progressed through multiple phases, with the Generation 3 (Gen 3) SATED cooker being the latest iteration, featuring significant upgrades in both hardware (by Ascent Technology) and software (by JetSoftPro).
JetSoftPro developed the GUI and operational software for hardware specified and designed by Ascent. The software for SATED was written in Python, making it accessible for further modifications and understanding by the project team.
SATED has won 2nd place at the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge and received the prestigious Tyler Florence Award for Culinary Innovation!
Values delivered by JetSoftPro
- Intuitive UI for space cooker
- Reliable software for Zero-gravity conditions
Product Overview
SATED is a revolutionary cooking appliance designed to operate in Zero-G, as well as in Lunar, Martian, and Earth gravity environments. At the core of SATED’s innovation is a precisely heated tubular rotor. Food ingredients are introduced sequentially, and as the rotor spins, artificial gravity forces press the ingredients against the heated inner surface, ensuring even cooking through conductive thermal contact.
The SATED Gen 3 cooker successfully achieved all project milestones, culminating in a fully operational prototype by the target date. The improved cooker demonstrated its ability to prepare a variety of meals from dehydrated ingredients, significantly enhancing the quality of food available to astronauts.
