Student Spaceflight Experiments Project

The Effects of Microgravity on the Osmotic Process

The investigation will study the effects of microgravity on osmosis using ramen noodles as our test subject. The hypothesis is that the ramen noodles will absorb more water in microgravity than in earth’s gravity. The rationale for this is that in space each noodle is fully expanded due to microgravity, while on earth the noodle may be compressed which would cause it to lose water and space for water. The importance of this investigation is that there could be undiscovered issues with osmosis in microgravity which would cause certain foods to be unfit for space travel, hopefully we make a discovery that allows us to find a new source or storage method for food in space.