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An optimized 4-day diet meal plan for 'Lunar Palace 1'
Yuming Fu1,2,3, Rong Guo1,3, Hong Liu1,2,3
1Institute of Environmental Biology and Life Support Technology, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
|July 6, 2018
Summary
Astronauts can enjoy nutritious and appealing Chinese meals on long space missions, thanks to bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS). This optimized diet uses BLSS-grown crops and insects, ensuring balanced nutrition and high crew acceptance.
Area of Science:
- Space exploration
- Bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS)
- Nutritional science
Background:
- Bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS) are essential for providing self-sufficient food during long-term manned space missions.
- Transforming BLSS-produced biomass into palatable meals is crucial for crew well-being.
- Developing a Chinese-characteristic dietary menu using in situ BLSS ingredients is a key objective.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and optimize a Chinese dietary menu for long-term manned missions.
- To ensure the menu is nutritionally balanced and highly acceptable to crews.
- To utilize biomass regenerated in situ within the 'Lunar Palace 1' BLSS.
Main Methods:
- Designed a 4-day Chinese diet meal plan for the 'Lunar Palace 1' experiment.
- Incorporated crops and insects regenerated in situ via BLSS.
- Conducted a 105-day closed habitation experiment to validate nutritional adequacy and acceptability.
Main Results:
- An optimized 2900-calorie, 4-day Chinese diet meal plan was developed.
- The meal plan meets balanced diet requirements and exceeds most nutrient recommendations.
- 78% of daily fresh food (1267 g/day) was sourced from BLSS-regenerated crops and insects.
- Crew acceptability was high, scoring 7.8-8.2 on a 9-point hedonic scale.
- A 105-day experiment confirmed the diet satisfies basic nutritional needs.
Conclusions:
- The study provides valuable insights for designing dietary meal plans for future long-term manned space missions.
- Optimized Chinese menus using BLSS-regenerated ingredients can enhance crew nutrition and satisfaction.
- This research supports the feasibility of self-sufficient food systems in space exploration.