Aerospace technology increasingly allows take longer trips off Earthbut even being hundreds of kilometers from the ground of our planet, astronauts also have the right to a good quality of life. It is quite complicated to order at home on board the International Space Station, and that is why for many years astronauts have been fed with canned or pre-cooked products. Everyone gets bored eating the same thing all the time, but luckily it seems that the boring “space menu” is already established, is on the way to change.
Among the dozens of NASA missions that are currently active, one of them is to find a way to growing food sustainably in space. Farming with altered gravity isn’t easy, which is why there isn’t yet a very wide range of crops that can be sustainable in orbit.
However, there are vegetables that hold up well, and with those ingredients the University of Adelaidein Australia, along with the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom they have designed the definitive prototype of “space salad”, ideal for astronauts to eat healthy and, above all, fresh.
A salad that is the first step to change the consumption habits of astronauts
The dish contains ingredients that they can be grown easily inside the ISS: kale, barley, poppy seeds, sweet potato peanuts and soybeans. The rations were designed based on a study that NASA conducted in 2011 where he described the amount of nutrients necessary for an astronaut embarking on a long-duration space mission. In a official statement from the University of Adelaide explain that, in addition to measuring everything to make it meet nutritional minimumsthey have also obtained a dish with good flavor and appetizing appearance:
“We have simulated a mix of six to eight crops that all provide the necessary nutrients that an astronaut needs and they also taste good combined. There are more vegetables and foods that could be grown in orbit, but we needed to focus on smaller portions that could grow in a small space. In addition to nutritional values and the ability to grow the plants in space, we also look at other important aspects of a space diet to promote the well-being of astronauts, including colour, appearance and taste”
The salad was presented and tasted by several volunteers, and the reactions were very positive. Fight a consumption habit that focuses almost 100% in pre-cooked foods and preserves, being able to eat something fresh and grown by themselves is a brutal jump in the quality of life of astronauts. Everything indicates that the “garden” of the International Space Station will continue to grow over the years.