[imagesource: IC via China Daily]

When I imagine what space food is like it’s usually a vacuum-packed porridge that you mix with water, with all the nutrients that the human body may need but zero taste.

In this imagining, the astronauts eat that for every meal with no complaints because why would they, they’re out in space for crying out loud.

My imagination clearly needs a reality check.

Space is not just a fun ride, because it also comes with major environmental and physical challenges.

For example, a broken toilet.

That’s why the need for safe, nutritious, and energy-packed food is absolutely vital.

As per Discover Magazine, Grace Douglas, a lead scientist for NASA’s Advanced Food Technology research group at the Johnson Space Center, is there to ensure the best for space travellers.

“We have crews that need to perform and be healthy at these extremely high levels for extremely high-stress situations,” she says.

“Food impacts every aspect of physiology, and food can either make you very healthy or can make you very sick.”

A robust and nutritious food system for space travel, she says, can have positive outcomes for a space crew’s performance and general wellbeing.

The further you go from Earth’s food supply the more challenging it becomes to produce, transport, and prepare healthy food.

NASA, as well as other space organisations, have to make sure that meals aren’t just providing energy and nourishment. They must also be palatable and stay safe for consumption for months, or even years.

Let’s talk about nutrition first.

First of all, the caloric intake that a person in space needs is far more than a person on Earth.

Without an intake of 2 700 to 3 700 daily calories, astronauts risk losing body mass, which is a key marker of nutrition.

On Earth, we need loads of vitamins and nutrients to function healthily, but in space, the microgravity environments increase our need for these kinds of things:

Proper nutrition can combat the resulting degradation of bones and muscles. For example, vitamins D, K and C aid in synthesizing calcium into bone.

When combined with exercise, they help astronauts retain bone and muscle strength against the deleterious effects of microgravity.

I hope they’re packing some health shots.

Eyesight, muscle mass, and blood oxygen levels are other parts of the body that need to be accounted for when it comes to mealtime:

 “In general, if it’s good for you on Earth, it’s going to be good for you on spaceflights,” Douglas says.

In more recent times, NASA has stepped away from dietary formulas and is rather encouraging fresher meal plans:

Food derived from a variety of natural sources can provide a variety of phytochemicals — or biologically active compounds — that you can’t get from dietary supplements.

Moving on to the flavour factor.

You know how when you go to a foreign country and you seek out the food you are familiar with, especially for comfort, if you’ve been there for a rather long time? Well, astronauts get that tenfold:

“Food becomes more important with mission duration, isolation and confinement because it’s one of the only familiar things that they have,” Douglas says.

NASA food teams have to get creative and provide several meal options to avoid menu fatigue.

There’s talk of a freeze-dried mango salad that includes a crunchy nut – that’s better than the oatmeal I had for breakfast.

Then there’s the storage part of things. The NASA food systems team generally uses technology like freeze-drying and retort thermal sterilisation, which is used in many of the cans we buy from supermarkets.

Otherwise, NASA periodically sends vehicles to refresh the supplies on the International Space Station, sometimes including produce and new food packs.

But for longer missions outside of near-Earth orbit, food may need to last up to five years.

Looking ahead, NASA scientists are studying the best ways to grow crops in microgravity so that astronauts can have immediate access to that fresh, homely feel.

[source:discovermagazine]