(ORDO NEWS) — The fresh lettuce is made from grains, herbs and vegetables that can be grown in orbit and is rich in nutrients especially needed in spaceflight.
The astronauts working on the ISS are completely dependent on food delivered to them from Earth. Participants in future long-term manned expeditions will also have to take with them most of the supplies.
However, some products can be grown on board. Such fresh meals are good for the health of the body and mind, and also reduce the weight of the cargo that must be carried on board.
Back in 2011, NASA researchers formulated the requirements for “space” nutrition, focusing on the organoleptic and nutritional properties of different products, the possibility of long storage, growing in flight, and the like.
Based on these data, scientists from Australia and the UK have compiled a recipe for a fresh “space salad”. A press release from the University of Adelaide tells about their work.
“There are dozens of plants that can satisfy the nutritional needs of astronauts,” said Professor Volker Hessel (Volker Hessel), one of the authors of the new work. can be grown in limited space.”
To do this, scientists used a specially developed mathematical model. She evaluated more than a hundred plants, combining them into salads containing six to eight ingredients.
The system focused on optimal amounts of calories and nutrients, the ability to produce food on board the spacecraft, using already proven hydro and aeroponics systems, took into account the energy and fertilizer costs for growing, minimizing waste, and so on.
A ready-made space salad recipe includes soybeans, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, barley sprouts, kale, peanuts and sweet potatoes.
This salad has already been tasted. Four volunteers tried it and concluded that they “could eat it for a whole week every day, like astronauts.”
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