Psychological and Technical Aspects of Food in Space

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Psychological and Technical Aspects of Food in
Space

• Leroy Chiao, Ph.D.
• Astronaut
• January 12, 2006
• Contact Information leroychiao_at_mac.com

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Outline

• Short/Long Duration Differences
• Food and Crew Physical Health
• Food and Crew Morale
• Food Shortage on Expedition 10
• Space Food Today
• Space Food Hardware Today
• Future

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Short/Long Duration Differences

• There are huge differences between short and long
  duration space flights and flyers
• Physical Effects
• The body seems to take about a month to adapt
• Subjective Impressions
• Whats important and whats not
• Subjective impression of food
• Bottom line Dont believe what a short duration
  flyer tells you!

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Food and Crew Physical Health

• Survival
• Importance of sustaining body mass in space
• Exercise
• Bone Loss
• Muscle Mass
• Aerobic Conditioning

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Food and Crew Morale

• Long duration space experience parallels other
  long-duration activities
• Historical sailing expeditions
• Antarctic winter expeditions
• Missile submarine cruises
• All long-duration crews talk about the importance
  of food (or lack thereof)
• Food as a reward for a good day of work

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Food and Crew Morale

• MIR 24 Experience
• Late crewman substitution did not allow for food
  manifest substitution
• New crewman lost approximately 30 pounds of body
  mass over 4 months
• Reported significant effect on morale
• Expedition 10 Experience
• Food shortage resulted in significant challenge
  to keep up crew morale

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Food Shortage on Expedition 10

• Expedition 9 experienced food shortage
• Started with a full compliment of unopened food
• Anecdotal evidence of high consumption rate
• Resupply ship manifest may have been unbalanced
• Expedition 9 requested and received permission to
  open Expedition 10 food containers
• E9 crew instructed to report what was taken, so
  that E10 could make up the shortfall on their
  vehicle

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Food Shortage on Expedition 10

• Failure to communicate!
• E9 under-reported, or confusion on the ground
• Resulted in significant food shortage for E10
• Arrived onboard to discover that 90 percent of
  E10 food containers had been opened
• Food picked over and substituted
• Containers that appeared full, really werent
• About 5 weeks before Progress resupply, we
  realized that we had a problem

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Food Shortage on Expedition 10

• Detailed audit led to a rationing plan
• 1200 calories/day of real food per person
• Made up calorie deficit with candies and desserts
• Overabundance of sweets left by E9
• Physical Effects
• Each E10 Crewman lost between 5-10 pounds
• No long term physical or medical effects

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Food Shortage on Expedition 10

• Psychological Aspects
• Private irritation with E9 crew
• Could not help but to monitor each other
• Spin control on the ground exacerbated
  situation
• Downplayed the situation
• Some reports blamed E10 crew for overeating and
  creating our own problem

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Food Shortage on Expedition 10

• Coping Techniques
• Kept a positive public face
• Kept a positive attitude
• Used humor to cheer each other up
• Rationed out treats to keep our morale up
• Enjoying a tasty, hot meal at the end of a
  workday made a huge difference in morale
• Progress resupply ship arrived on Christmas day
• Celebrated with a special meal

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Food Shortage on Expedition 10

• Observations from the experience
• Food is extremely important for crew morale
• The human body and mind are amazingly adaptable
• Tend to want most, what you dont have
• Food will become even more important for longer
  missions

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Space Food Today

• American, Russian, European and Japanese space
  agencies all work on space food.
• European and Japanese space agencies make
  special, ethnic foods for their astronauts
• These foods are manifested for launch on either
  American or Russian vehicles, for European or
  Japanese missions

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Space Food Today

• American Space Food
• Extensive use of commercial Meals-Ready-to-Eat
  (MREs) that are used by the military
• Extensive use of freeze-dried foods that are
  custom made
• Bonus containers for long-duration flyers
• Commercial items that are approved by NASA food
  specialists

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Space Food Today

• Russian Space Food
• Extensive use of canned items
• Extensive use of freeze-dried items
• All space food is custom made
• Some commercial bonus items are allowed

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Space Food Today

• Some people report taste changes in space
• All anecdotal, from short-duration flyers
• Short-duration flyers are still adapting
  physically and psychologically, when it is time
  to return to earth
• Observations of psychological compensation
• The Camping Effect
• Similar effect for crewmen who smoke on the
  ground

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Space Food Hardware Today

• No cooking is done onboard todays space
  vehicles
• Space Shuttle
• Hydration station (hot/cool) for freeze-dried
  packages
• Convective food warmer

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Space Food Hardware Today

• Soyuz
• No food warmer, no hot water
• All food is eaten cold, no freeze-dried items
• International Space Station
• Russian hydration station (hot/warm) with adapter
  for US food packages
• Russian conductive warmer for canned food
• US conductive food warmer for MREs and other
  items

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Space Food Today

• Although there is general understanding within
  NASA of the importance of food during
  long-duration spaceflight, only long-duration
  flyers that have been there really feel it and
  really understand.
• Because of the Expedition 10 experience, NASA
  managers are more aware of the importance of food
• NASA is still very Shuttle-centric, but it is
  changing
• The Russians, because of their long history of
  space stations, better understand the importance
  of food

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Space Food Today

• Space food specialists have done a good job of
  offering menu variety, within the limitations of
  the hardware and other factors
• Besides adding a few menu items, space food has
  not changed much over the last 15 years
• As we fly longer missions and branch out back to
  the Moon and on to Mars, food will only become
  more important!

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Future

• This is the time for radical, new ideas!
• New space food hardware will enable new space
  food products
• Make Earth foods, only when a high-quality
  replication is possible
• Invent new foods!
• It is better to make something new, rather than
  do a mediocre job of replicating something
  familiar
• Example of Vegan meat products. Some are good,
  not all

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Future

• Try non-traditional food ingredients
• Meat substitutes (soy, gluten based)
• Can use these to replicate meat products, or
  invent entirely new foods
• Solves some long-term storage issues
• Most freeze-dried meats are not very good
• Canned meat and MREs still expire. A Mars
  mission may be longer than the shelf life of
  todays food items

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Future

• We can do better!
• Dont limit thinking and ideas!

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