Zanneio Experimental High School of Piraeus
Introduction
We sought to provide information about nutrition, and how it affects life on Earth as well as during space flight. When flying in space, the human body feels that it is in an environment very different from the ground. You spend your whole life on the ground with gravity—and in space, all of a sudden that changes. The body does a great job of quickly
realizing this, and it starts to change to get used to this new world —a process we call adaptation. Adaptation to space flight affects almost every part of the body in one way or another: heart,
muscles, bones, stomach, blood, even your inner ear (the part that helps you keep your balance). This can make the first few days of space flight very rough, sort of like living on a roller coaster!
Most of these changes don’t have a negative effect while you are in space, but some can have large effects when you land on Earth again. For example, your body needs less blood while you are
weightless, probably because it is easier to get blood (and oxygen) to all parts of the body without gravity. This adaptation takes a week
or two. During that time your body lowers the number of blood cells
and the amount of fluid circulating in your blood vessels. Some of the fluid (that is, water) is shifted out of the blood vessels and into other areas of the body (like into cells) or out of the body (in urine). This works fine in space, but when you come back to Earth, your body won’t have enough blood, so we need to be careful that the
astronauts don’t faint on their return to Earth’s gravity! To help
prevent problems, about 45 minutes before returning to Earth, the astronauts drink a liter of salty solution to help them during and soon after landing.
What’s so important about nutrition?
Eating nutritious food is important to help you grow strong muscles and bones, and to keep you healthy throughout your life. Like it or not, eating is something you really can’t live without, and eating right can help determine the quality of your life, whether you are a teen or an astronaut. The main job of NASA’s Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory is to determine how much of each nutrient (vitamins, minerals, calories) astronauts need to eat while they are in space. Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory scientists have a set of recommendations for what crew members should eat during space flight, and sometimes they change it because of what their research tells them. They also need to check to see if astronauts in space are getting enough, or too much or too little, of each nutrient. How do we know if the body is getting the right nutrients? Keeping track of what crew members eat tells part of what we need to know. We do this with a computerized questionnaire, which the astronauts on the International Space Station fill out once a week. Another part of our knowledge comes from collecting blood and urine samples before and after flight, and measuring biochemicals in them that tell us how well the astronauts are processing each nutrient. The concentration of each vitamin and mineral can be determined, and we can measure other biochemicals that tell us about muscle, bone, kidneys, and more! By putting together these two parts of our knowledge, we can look at the relationship between what the astronauts ate and how well their bodies used each nutrient. Then we can estimate whether they are getting enough, too little, or too much of each nutrient. Resource:
The students of the nutrition and cooking club Space Nutrition – June 27, 2012 by Scott M. Smith (Author)
What is Space Food?
Space food is a type of food product created and processed for consumption by astronauts in outer space. The kinds of foods the Space Shuttle astronauts eat are not mysterious concoctions, but foods prepared here on Earth. The food for astronauts has specific requirements of providing balanced nutrition for individuals working in space, while being easy and safe to store, prepare and consume in the machinery-filled weightless environments of crewed spacecraft. In recent years, space food has been used by various nations engaging on space programs as a way to share and show off their cultural identity and facilitate intercultural communication. Although astronauts consume a wide variety of foods and beverages in space, the initial idea from The Man in Space Committee of the Space Science Board in 1963 was to supply astronauts with a formula diet that would supply all the needed vitamins and nutrients.
Types of Space Food
Rehydratable Foods
The water is removed from rehydratable foods to make them easier to store. This process of dehydration (also known as freeze drying) is described in the earlier Gemini section. Water is replaced in the foods before they are eaten. Rehydratable items include beverages as well as food items. Hot cereal such as oatmeal is a rehydratable food.
Thermostabilized Foods
 Thermostabilized foods are heat processed so they can be stored at room temperature. Most of the fruits and fish (tuna fish) are thermostabilized in cans. The cans open with easyopen pull tabs similar to fruit cups that can be purchased in the local grocery store. Puddings are packaged in plastic cups.
Intermediate Moisture Food
Intermediate moisture foods are preserved by taking some water out of the product while leaving enough in to maintain the soft texture. This way, it can be eaten without any preparation. These foods include dried peaches, pears, apricots, and beef jerky.
Natural Form Foods These foods are ready to eat and are packaged in flexible pouches. Examples include nuts, granola bars, and cookies.
Irradiated Food
Beef steak and smoked turkey are the only irradiated products being used at this time. These products are cooked and packaged in flexible foil pouches and sterilized by ionizing radiation so they can be kept at room temperature.
Fresh Foods
These foods are neither processed nor artificially preserved. Examples include fresh fruits, vegetables, and tortillas delivered by Resupply missions. These foods spoil quickly and need to be eaten within the first two days of the package's arrival to the ISS to prevent spoilage. These foods are provided as psychological support.
Frozen & Refrigerated Food
Frozen Food: These foods are quick frozen to prevent a buildup of large ice crystals. This maintains the original texture of the food and helps it taste fresh. Examples include quiches, casseroles, and chicken pot pie. Refrigerated Food: These foods require cold or cool temperatures to prevent spoilage. Examples include cream cheese and sour cream.
Breads Products
Extended shelf-life bread products Scones,waffles and rolls specially formulated to have a shelf life of up to 18 months. Shelf Stable Tortillas - Tortillas that have been heat treated and specially packaged in an oxygen free nitrogen atmosphere to prevent the growth of mold.
Condiments
Liquid salt solution, oily pepper paste, mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard.
Beverages
Freeze dried drink mixes (coffee or tea) or flavored drinks (lemonade or orange drink) are provided in vacuum sealed beverage pouches. Coffee and tea may have powdered cream and/or sugar added depending on personal taste preferences. Empty beverage pouches are provided for drinking water.
Space Missions & Food
• Mercury (1959–1963) • Gemini (1965-1966) • Apollo 11(1969) • Skylab (1973-1974) • Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (1975) • Space Shuttle(1982) • International Space Station (ISS) (1998)
Mercury (1959–1963) • The United States’ first Space program that sent humans to Space. • The first Space food were unappetizing. • Bite-sized cubes of compressed and dehydrated foods that were dehydrated by the saliva in the astronauts’ mouths. • Freeze dried powders. • Semi-liquid product squeezed from tubes and sucked up through straws.
Gemini (1965-1966)
• Simpler dehydration methods were developed. • improved dehydrated and freeze-dried foods that allowed a wide variety of foods. • Bite-sized cubes were coated with gelatin to prevent from crumbling. • Expanded menu to include items such as shrimp cocktail, chicken and vegetables, toast squares, butterscotch pudding, and apple juice. • 3 meals per day.
Apollo 11(1969)
• Could see and smell what they were eating as well as eat with a spoon for the first time in Space. • Used hot water to rehydrate food so the variety of foods increased even more. • Used thermostabilized pouches called wet packs. • Menu included: coffee, bacon squares, cornflakes, scrambled eggs, cheese crackers, beef sandwich, chocolate pudding, fresh juices etc.
Skylab (1973-1974)
• Refrigeration, freezing, warming trays. • first device capable of heating foods. • 72 different types of menu items in all. • Eating a meal in Skylab was more like eating a meal at home. • Supply of food sufficient to feed 3 astronauts for approximately 112 days. • Ham, chili, mashed potatoes, vanilla ice-cream, steak etc.
Apollo Soyuz Test Project (1975)
• First joint Space programme of
the Us and Soviet. • The Americans-similar meals to Apollo and Skylab. • The Soviets- canned beef tongue, packaged Riga bread, and tubes of borscht (beet soup) and caviar.
Space Shuttle(1982)
• Meal tray is used as a dinner plate. • food variety expanded to 74 different Kind of foods and 20 kinds of beverages. • Water dispenser and oven.
International Space Station (ISS) (1998) • Similar meals to Space Shuttle. • More than 250 foods and beverages. • Improved packaging (canned, frozen and wrapped in sealed packs).
Space Food Recipes
https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/living/spacefood/cornbread_dressing.html
Next steps
The main challenges that lie ahead for NASA’s space food scientists are to enhance packaging and shelf life for stored food. Advances in the design, fabrication and testing of miniaturized processing equipment are also necessary. The effects of radiation on the quality of stored foods and the functionality of stored crops are two other major challenges. Finally, researchers must determine how the AFS will influence many of the crews’ lifesupport systems such as air and water recovery, solid waste processing, thermal management and biomass production.
References
https://www.newmail.gr/to-μενού-των-α
στροναυτών-στο-διάστημα/ https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/living/spacefood /
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/ presskits/spacefood/factsheets.html
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Space_food# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_food
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/04/tech/ nasa-diet-space-food/index.html Space Nutrition Paperback – June 27, 2012 by Scott M. Smith (Author)
NASA: Space Food and Nutrition Educator Guide - Scholar's Choice Edition Paperback – February 16, 2015 by National Aeronautics and Space Administr (Creator) https://
history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-38_Bas
eline_Apollo_Food_and_Beverages.htm NASA: Space Food and Nutrition Educator Guide - Scholar's Choice Edition Paperback