China turns space technology into civilian products

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-26 15:02

BEIJING -- China's manned space program may be controversially run by the military, but its space technologies are definitely resulting into civilian products, such as tasty food and hi-tech earplugs.

"We have been working to civilianize the space food," said Chen Bin, nutritionist in charge of astronauts' food with the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.

The center was working with some food manufacturers, providing technologies and quality standard for them. So far chocolate and cakes astronauts ate in the space have been produced for civilian use, Chen said.

"Space food is safe, convenient and of intense nutrition," he said. "It will be popular with travelers, mountaineers and explorers to the polar regions."

In addition, space food production adopted the strictest quality control standard. For instance, air quality at the workshops should be the same as pharmacy factories, he said. "It will stand out in the market when people are paying more and more attention to food safety."

The earplugs that astronauts are wearing on board of the Shenzhou-7 spaceship have also entered civilian market.

Through thousands of tests, the center found a special material to produce the earplugs that most fitted human skin texture and stood against unusual pressure in the space.

The earplugs, tailor-made to astronauts' ears, could automatically adjust pressure inside the ears and effectively keep noise out but would not affect hearing, said a source with the center.

The earplugs have been tested in the previous two manned space programs. They will be useful for miners and other people working in a noisy condition such as spinning mills, the source said.

They can also effectively resist the pressure under the water and are popular with divers and swimmers, he said.