NASA scientists are developing a nutritional bar that will replace astronauts' 700-calorie meals for breakfast.
It seems a lot, but in fact, on average, the crew of the International Space Station eats about 3,000 calories per day. This is the level required for two-hour daily exercises.
"The astronauts burn a lot of calories when carrying out operations aboard the ISS. So this amount of calories is what they need," said Maya Cooper from the Wyle Laboratories laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Cargo ships regularly supply food to the ISS, so food is not a problem. But NASA is laying the groundwork for missions that will send astronauts far beyond the 260-mile orbit of the station, which makes the supply of food difficult.
The free space on board the space station is also limited, prompting scientists to come up with a way to reduce the mass of food. Currently, the focus is on breakfast, which currently includes six separate packages of products such as eggs, sausage, bread and beverages. “It takes a lot of space and you get a lot of trash,” said Cooper. "If we had only one dense package of food, then this allowed us to save a lot in terms of the volume of packaging."
For a 2, 5-year journey to Mars, each astronaut will need about 2.5 tons of food. This is the largest amount of consumables required for a space station.
"If we can reduce the mass of food, it will positively affect the vehicle infrastructure," Cooper added. "It will take considerable time to get to Mars and there are limits to how much we can take with us."
In addition to developing a nutritional bar, NASA will test how pleasant it is for astronomers to consume such food.
“We know that food has many psycho-social implications for the crew,” says Cooper.
Also, researchers are considering the option of using the bar every second or even third breakfast. This will be enough to reduce the amount of food and at the same time, do not get tired of astronauts.
