Hey, this is Philip, and it's Monday, April 6th. Quick bonus episode because I want to nerd out on something happening right now that I think anybody interested in space, but also strength and nutrition will appreciate. So NASA's Artemis II mission launched on April 1st. Four astronauts, 10 days flying around the moon for the first time since 1972. And as of today, they're going to be doing their lunar flyby around the far side of the moon. And I've been following the mission details because I love this stuff. I'm in I've been in aerospace for many years myself. And the exercise and nutrition setup is a nice little case study for what we talk about on the show. And I just want to kind of go through what I read I've read up about it in case you weren't aware. So let me tell you what's on board. The Orion capsule, remember the mission Artemis II, the Orion capsule where the astronauts are on, it's it's like the size of a large SUV. Four people are in the capsule. They live there for 10 days. And if you compare it to like the International Space Station, which has a ton of equipment, including 4,000 pounds of exercise equipment, like a treadmill, a stationary bike, a very large resistance device. Orion is tiny, right? So they can't, they don't have the room to fit that kind of stuff. So what they do have is this flywheel device. And I remember seeing it on TV and they were demonstrating it. I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool. How do they maintain their muscle in space? Because one of the fears I would have of going to Mars, let alone just the moon, is you know, losing all that muscle mass. And this flywheel device weighs 30 pounds. It's the size of like a carry-on suitcase. And they keep it under the capsule door and it doubles as a step for the crew to get in and out of the spacecraft. So I love how they reuse things for multiple purposes. And that's all they have. That's all they have. But what it does is it allows them to do squats, deadlifts, and rows. So think of it as a cable-based mechanism, kind of like a yo-yo. Again, it has a flywheel, and it re-the resistance is proportional to how hard you pull. So it goes, it can apparently go up to about 400 pounds of load. And the crew does 30-minute sessions almost every day. So NASA is, you know, very innovative when it comes to this stuff. And they had to answer the question look, if we could only bring something small, a small piece of equipment, given that every pound of weight costs thousands of dollars to launch into space, what's the minimum that we need to keep four humans strong enough to survive re-entry? And again, this is only a 10-day mission. This isn't like going to Mars. But still, the answer here was, hey, let's make sure they are lifting weights. They're doing compound movements, which we love squats, deadlifts, rows. It's not a treadmill or Peloton or leg extension or anything like that, which you may have seen on other missions. You may have seen them doing lots of running or even running with like resistance on them. But these are just lifting, you know, compound lifts. Because in microgravity, you lose muscle and bone density really quickly. Again, that's why I'm afraid of ever going into space, let alone the other reasons. So your body is in a micro, in a lack of gravity environment. So of course, it doesn't have any resistance like it normally has on Earth. And you're trying to tell it, hey, I still need this, and give it the signal you need through mechanical loading, which is the same signal your body would respond to on Earth, except you'd have the extra weight as well. So if you are older and you're listening to this, if you're over 40 and you want to preserve muscle and bone density and metabolic health, the stimulus, it's an extreme example of what we need to do. Whether you're in orbit or you're doing it yourself in your basement gym, heavy compound lifts. And I like that it goes up to 400 pounds. I don't know, again, if it's a continuous load, kind of kind of like a cable machine, but I imagine that it is. Now, to complement this, they have an interesting food situation. My daughters and I were watching the live feed on YouTube and watching them drink their water out of the bag. And then they and the uh mission control was like, okay, now we're gonna do some sort of snack situation. I don't I didn't listen long enough, but they were specifically prescribing how they were gonna eat their snacks because everything they're doing up there is an experiment as well. So they want to see how astronauts fit can fare long term with these different things. And I'm not even gonna get started on the fact that their toilet is broken. But if you think about a space capsule, you don't have a refrigerator, there's no ability to resupply, you can't really have fresh food, everything you have to eat was packaged before launch. You know, think astronaut food, like shelf stable, it's stabilized against temperature, they have to irradiate it, they have to freeze dry it, all that. Then they have this water dispenser to rehydrate their meals, and then they have this little like briefcase-sized food warmer, even though I think most of the food is not warmed up, most of it's eaten at room temperature. But then they have this menu. They've posted on their ex account, NASA has some infographics with what they eat. And there's like 189 items: vegetable quiche, scrambled eggs, barbecue brisket. That's the one that stood out at me. They probably fight over that one. Mac and cheese, there's couscous with nuts, there's 58 tortillas because tortillas don't make crumbs, and you don't want clums, crumbs like floating around a spacecraft. So they don't have bread, things like that. But what's cool is they have food scientists in NASA that build each crew member a daily menu to hit their calorie targets, their hydration, their nutrient needs. And they had the astronauts taste and rate everything during the pre-flight testing. And then they asked them what they like the most. Like, what are your preferences? And it got balanced against the nutritional requirements of what the spacecraft could carry. So, you know, that appeals to me as well, because that's kind of the essence of nutrition coaching. It's like you've got to have your calorie macro targets, then you match them to the constraints of the real world, whatever that is for you, and then build a plan you're gonna follow because you actually like the food and you don't want to get sick and tired of the food. The constraint that NASA just happens to have is, well, we don't have a refrigerator and we're also a quarter million miles from the next grocery store. Whereas you have a kitchen and a car most likely, and have easier constraints than that. And, you know, they don't have anything that I could tell, like any superfood, like special powders. They don't have any special nutrient timing or anything like that. That although they might have a schedule that I'm not aware of. But it's a it's a very rigorous, constraint-based, evidence-based approach related to human performance in different environments. And of course, they said, look, we need to keep you strong. We need to give you enough protein, enough calories so that you can function, so you can have energy in this like really crazy environment that's gonna do a number on your muscle and bone. So I just wanted to nerd out on that, guys. I hope you found that interesting. I guess we we can be grateful we're here on Earth and we don't need special equipment or you know, freeze-dried astronaut food. We just need to do what we need to make progress and track and adjust and all that. But regardless, go ahead and share this episode with a friend if you thought it was cool, if you thought it was interesting, or just reach out, say hello, or just move on with your day and then catch our normal, our next normal episode tomorrow. If you enjoyed it, share it with somebody who gets a kick out of out of nerding out or the space angle, or hey, you know, maybe it motivates them to work out. I don't know. If you're new here, this is wits and weights. I drop episodes right now every Tuesday and Thursday on strength training, nutrition, you know, building a physique using evidence as opposed to all the trends and the hype out there that just don't work. And we tie we try to take, break apart a piece of fitness advice on every episode, examine it, and then tell you what really works and how to implement it in your life. Go ahead and hit follow, please, so you don't miss the next episode. And until next time, keep using your wits, lifting those weights. And look, if compound lifts and having enough protein and calories are good enough for a trip around the moon, then they're good enough for your average Tuesday here on Earth. I'm Philip Pape, and I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast.