What is the astronaut diet in space? A question that comes up again after thehype of the mission of Samantha Cristoforetti of 2015, which had caused so much talk and curiosity, even with pride given the national involvement. The occasion is the new space appointment on Friday 29 March, which NASA announced as the first "female" mission with the astronauts Christina Koch is Anne McClain engaged simultaneously in one spacewalk about seven hours. Unfortunately, the pink mission has been postponed due to practical problems: the space suit available in size M is only one! Rather than risk, the American organization has preferred to change the participants alongside the Koch Nick Hague – among other things, McClain has just been in space on March 22nd. As the two brave Americans stroll through space, let's venture into the diet of NASA astronauts.

Cosmic cuisine

If we were to open a restaurant on International Space Station (ISS), what could we offer? Virtually everything! NASA is aware of the curiosity around the subject, so it was a good idea to clarify any doubts in an official manner. The greatest wonder perhaps comes from the discovery that astronauts eat in space exactly as and as we do on Earth – or almost. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for them too, albeit with a priceless view of the stars.

There astronauts diet is carefully and scrupulously followed by a team of professional nutritionists, who ensure the correct intake of vitamins and minerals for every celestial traveler, maintaining the balance between lightness, flexibility and high nutritional value. Each menu is specially tailored, for example it will be 3200 calories a day for a man of size large, while for a woman small 1900 calories will be sufficient.

There are no major limitations of food choice: fruits, nuts, chicken, beef, seafood, sweets, sweets, etc. Ditto with regard to the drinks: the proposal varies from coffee, tea, orange juice, fruit juices to lemonade. No problem even for i condiments such as ketchup or mayonnaise, except for salt and pepper, used in thick liquid form. In fact, it is not possible to add them to the dishes as we would normally do because the dust would fly away and risk clogging the air ducts, contaminating the equipment or even ending up in the eyes or in the astronauts' nose.

If there are no major limitations for the ingredients, it is on Preparation that trigger the differences. Some foods can be taken in their natural forms, such as sweets or fruit, while others require the addition of water because they are dehydrated or freeze-dried such as spaghetti or the American mac & cheese. The spaceship provides an oven to bring the food to the correct temperature, while there are no refrigerators. The food is stored in special single-use packs in practical reduced sizes and designed so that they do not fly away due to the absence of gravity, to then be disposed of without weighing down the load.

Growing in orbit?

When it comes to missions that go 80 million miles from the Earth for periods up to three years, like in the case of journeys on the Moon or Mars, what to do? The NASA studies of food scientists at the Johnson Space Center they focus on important alternatives such as long-term conservation or the ability to grow fresh food in space. They are currently working on a system called AFS (Advanced Food System) to provide nutritious and palatable food while minimizing volume, mass and waste, increasing storage time from 18 months to 5 years with tasty menus.

Lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, spring onions, radishes, peppers, strawberries, cabbage and aromatic herbs are the foods you identify as possible cosmic crops. Despite the fact that the lunar or Martian soil is not cultivable, the possibility of building small gardens thanks to the hydroponic cultivation. In this regard, it does not hurt a bit of national pride: last October it won the 2018 award ECOtechGREEN as the best high-tech green prototype the Italian invention HortExtreme, the garden to cultivate in space. This is a project led by Enea, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the University of Milan for a 4 square meter vertical system of arable land divided into four levels – two for germination and two for growth – equipped with LED lights and inserted in an inflatable tent, for the "out of soil" hydroponic cultivation of microverdure.