Space salad. Scientists design astronaut meal with ingredients grown in cosmos

The team's goal was to formulate a meal that provides astronauts with all necessary nutrients, while being simple to prepare. This necessitated limiting the list of ingredients to a maximum of ten. The meal's volume also needed to be confined to the size of an average portion consumed on Earth.

An essential restriction was the ability to grow all the ingredients in space. Shu Liang from the University of Adelaide clarified that although meat is part of the menu for astronauts in Earth's orbit, future missions further into space will find a plant-based diet more effective.

This condition constrained the options to plants that could thrive in hydroponic environments, take up minimal space, and require little fertilization.

In addition, the researchers also considered the color aesthetics of the ingredients, acknowledging that the meal's taste and visual appeal could influence astronauts' moods. The ingredients' ability to retain freshness for an extended period and the potential for shared meals among the team were other criteria set.

Professor Volker Hessel from the University of Adelaide summarized the criteria for creating the space salad: "We simulated a mix of six to eight plants that provide all the required nutrients needed by astronauts. Their needs are different from people on Earth... we aimed to find plants that are nutrient-rich, offer high-calorie content in small servings, and can be grown in a limited space."

The creation of the optimal space salad recipe does not conclude the research on astronaut nutrition. The next step is to design a comprehensive production system, facilitating the cultivation of essential ingredients under space conditions.