Research of space kitchen and dietary provision

Abstract: Good food and nutrition help maintain psychological and physical status of the astronauts. Maintaining adequate nutrient supply in the aerospace food system is one of the key issues for mission success and occupant health and safety. Since the manned space flight in the 1960s, the space food system has undergone tremendous changes. To date, the manned space mission has been focused on low Earth orbit (LEO) exploring, and the current pre-packaged food system is regularly develped to meet those missions’ requirements. The principles of aerospace food research and flight recipe design have emphasized the functional and nutritional aspects of food, and have not paid enough attention to food in space. Through the human-food interaction design, the astronauts' experience in space is improved from three aspects: Sensory, emotional and environmental. The space kitchen provides an environment in which astronauts prepare for meals and eat while performing space missions and associated equipment. The rationality of space kitchen equipment configuration directly affects the efficiency, eating experience and nutritional health of astronauts working in orbit. This article focuses on how to ensure the long-term survival quality of astronauts in the food security and experience, the development of space food and space food processing technology with good sensory quality were summarized. According to the food processing methods, the basic functions that space kitchen equipment should possess including heating, refrigeration, drinking water distribution, fermentation, baking and meal waste treatment, etc.The main function of the meal waste treatment equipment is antibacterial and mildewproof and efficient compression, to avoid damage to the cabin environment and save the limited space in the cabin. Space drinking water provision and in-orbit recovery technologies play a key role in maintaining the cabin water balance and saving upward replenishment loads. Long-term shelf life space food research and development, food safety and nutrient stability need to be taken into account. Space foods and packages with shelf life of five years are currently undergoing validation tests. To adaption to the micro-gravity environment, easy using in the weightlessness environment, lightweight, energy-saving and multi-functional integration are the principal issues for the design and development of space kitchen equipment. With the advancement of manned space exploration targets such as the Moon and Mars, all major space power countries are considering introducing bioregeneration food systems as development priorities, such as the Advanced Food Technology (AFT) project, China's CELSS180 project, and Russia's MARS500 project. In the controlled ecological life support system, the in-orbit cultivation of plant, the preparation of food and the intelligent space kitchen are the development trend of space kitchens for long-term manned space missions such as Lunar or Mars bases. The Moon, Mars and Venus, where the atmosphere, gravity, soil, radiation and other conditions are different from those on the Earth, which may not support the germination, growth and development of plants. Therefore, to understand how plants grow on these extraterrestrial planets, efforts should be made to develop specific ground models to study in advance the nutritional absorption and growth characteristics of plants in specific environments by simulating the atmosphere and radiation parameters of planets.