Have you ever been alone sitting at your desk and wondered why someone invented something? I mean, when something is invented, usually there is a practical need for the item or device. For some reason, not too long ago, I sat at my desk and wondered why there was such a thing as Astronaut ice cream.

If you come to think about it, astronauts should have as many comforts of home as possible during their cramped journeys through space. But, somethings seem impossible to take into space feasibly, like ice cream for instance. Ice cream needs to be cold, like freezing cold, or else it melts, right? Now, how feasible is it to have a freezer in space? I’m well aware the cost of putting an item into space at this time is relative to that same item made of pure gold. And, of course space is cold, freezing really, but hanging your tub of ice cream out the window of a shuttle might not be a good idea.

So, sometime in the history of the world’s space programs someone has wanted to eat ice cream in space and had the ingenuity and resources to make it costs effective. A great feat none the less, but this brings up a little problem. Astronaut ice cream really isn’t what I consider… ice cream. It may be the freeze-dried remnants of a tub of the icy stuff for all I know, but it doesn’t have the characteristics of what I deem to be ice cream. But, I won’t let that little discrepancy keep me from enjoying the tasty bit of parched deliciousness.

So, to celebrate the creativity it took to dream up and create the consumable product we call Astronaut ice cream, I designed a combination of the ice cream unwrapping and a space shuttle zooming through space for Derby #57: Dessert. This was actually my second design for the derby.

Ice Cream From Spaaaaace! performed well and received many positive comments. It’s a personal favorite of mine that I’d like to see in print some day.

Bigger Galaxy

Another Chance

After the closing of the derby, the staff at Shirt.Woot chose their favorites to run again in the Derby #68: Double-Take Derby 3. The design was chosen and a few weeks later it competed again. Ice Cream From Spaaaaace! still did not receive enough votes to print.

Shirt Fight

For the Shirt Fight grand opening in March 2009, I entered the design into their debut contest. I did increase the size of the galaxy for the entry to give a higher sense of outer space. Ice Cream From Spaaaaace! still did not print, but gained many votes and a lot of attention. Adder at Singularitee even mentions the design in his weekly Contest Watch.

Shirt Fight Submission

It is very possible that this design will be seen again in the future.