Abstract
ABSTRACTMaintaining the nutrients and flavor acceptability of space food is critical for long-term manned space flights. Five different space food items from one batch, including braised beef with potatoes, stewed duck with sauce, black tomato powder, tea seed oil and fish oil were launched on the TG-1 spacecraft, and then brought back to Earth by the SZ-9 and SZ-10 manned spaceships respectively. The same food items and materials as those sent into space were stored in an environmentally controlled chamber on Earth as controls. Variations in certain volatile compounds in both braised beef with potatoes and stewed duck with sauce were observed after space flight, but no notable differences were observed in the vitamin contents in black tomato powder, tea seed oil, or fish oil. More attention should be focused on volatile compounds variations, and measures should be taken to maintain food acceptability during storage in space.
Highlights
The environment in space is very different from the environment on Earth, and gamma rays, high-energy protons, and heavy ions from cosmic rays pose a great threat to nutrient stability
The foods and food materials were selected based on the following criteria: a. currently used in the Shen Zhou space food system, b. a potential source of space food material, and c. representative of a typical type of space food
The total ion current charts of the volatile compounds are shown in Figures 1 and 2, and the identified flavor compounds are shown in Tables 2 and 3
Summary
The environment in space is very different from the environment on Earth, and gamma rays, high-energy protons, and heavy ions from cosmic rays pose a great threat to nutrient stability. Nutrition is of critical concern for crewmembers served on long-term space flight missions, such as the Space Station, Lunar Station, and Mars Station, as body weight loss is a primary consequence of altered nutrition and insufficient nutrient supply, which is frequently observed during space flight (Convertino, 2002; Winitz, Graff, Gallagher, Narkin, & Seedman, 1965; Stein, 2001). The environmental factors in space are likely to cause changes in the flavor and vitamin content of food, and these changes may affect the nutritional value and sensory acceptability of space food, further affecting the health of astronauts(Lane, Smith, Rice, & Bourland, 1994). As human footsteps reach further into outer space, measures must be taken to maintain proper nutrition for crew members during long-term space flights, including how to maintain the nutrients and acceptability of foods, which is a major issue faced by space food scientists (Smith, Rice, Dlouhy, & Zwart, 2013). Farming in space or on land away from the Earth will be considered due to launch capacity limitation (Bamsey et al, 2009; Jr & Brown, 2006; Monje, Stutte, Goins, Porterfield, & Bingham, 2003), which will provide crewmembers with fresh food such as cereals, fruits and vegetables
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