Nutrition In Space Food

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Nutrition in Space Food

Nutrition has played a critical role throughout the history of exploration, and space exploration is no exception. While a one- to two-week flight aboard the Space Shuttle might be analogous to a camping trip, adequate nutrition is absolutely critical when spending several months or years aboard the International Space Station or on a mission to another planet. Space-nutrition specialists must know how much of various individual nutrients astronauts need, and these nutrients must be available in the spaceflight food system to ensure that astronauts had adequate nutrition.In more complicate matters, spaceflight nutritional requirements are influenced by many of the physiological changes that occur during spaceflight. Spacecraft, space …show more content…

These losses are typically from 1 percent to 5 percent of body mass but they can reach 10 percent to 15 percent of preflight body mass. Although a 1 percent body-weight loss can be explained by loss of body water, the most of observed loss of body weight is accounted for by loss of muscle and fat tissue. Weightlessness leads to loss of muscle mass and muscle volume, weakening muscle performance, especially in the legs. The losses are believed to be related to a metabolic stress associated with spaceflight. These researches are similar to those found in patients with serious diseases or trauma, such as burn patients. Nowadays , exercise routines have not succeeded in maintaining muscle mass or strength of astronauts during spaceflight. Most of the exercises performed have been aerobic like using treadmill, stationary bicycle. Use of resistance exercise, in which a weight or another person provides resistance to exercise against, has been suggested to aid in the maintenance of both muscle and bone during flight. Ground-based studies of resistance exercise show that it may be helpful, not only for muscle but also for