Insider Brief:
- Researchers have designed the ‘perfect’ “space meal” for astronauts on long missions to Mars, addressing the challenge of providing tasty and nutritious food in a sustainable manner.
- The vegetarian salad, consisting of soybeans, poppy seeds, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato, and/or sunflower seeds, was identified as the most efficient balance of maximal nutrients and minimal farming inputs.
Researchers, aiming to address the challenge of providing nutritious and tasty food for astronauts on long missions, have designed an optimal “space meal.”
Using a method called linear programming, they assessed combinations of fresh ingredients to meet male astronauts’ daily nutritional needs while minimizing water requirements to grow the crops in space, as reported by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
The identified vegetarian salad consists of soybeans, poppy seeds, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato, and/or sunflower seeds. As described on EurekAlert! ingredients were found to offer the required nutritional benefits for the astronauts while also being sustainable options to grow in space. Not to mention, taste tests on Earth received positive reviews.
Future plans for the researchers include exploring options for female astronauts and expanding the crop variety in their database.
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