NASA recently brought together more than 50 commercial food and space companies to learn about the evolution of the space food system supporting NASA’s missions, including the unique requirements of spaceflight, menu development, and food provisioning – essential elements for human spaceflight and sustainable life in space.
The event, held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, brought together private industry leaders, NASA astronauts and NASA’s Space Nutrition team to discuss creative solutions to feed public and private astronauts on future commercial space stations.
“The commercial food industry is a leader in producing safe and nutritious food for consumers, and with the knowledge shared by NASA on the unique space food safety and human health needs, this community is poised to support this new market of commercial consumers in low Earth orbit,” said Kimberly Prokhorov, deputy head of Johnson’s Human Systems Engineering and Integration, which develops food systems.
Experts from NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory shared the unique requirements and conditions associated with the formulation, production, packaging and logistics of space food to ensure the success of commercial flights to low Earth orbit. Participants heard from astronauts about the importance of space food, the challenges they face, and potential areas for improvement. They also tasted real space food and learned about the nutritional requirements that are critical to maintaining human health and performance in space.
“By bringing together key players in the commercial food and space industries, we were able to provide an opportunity to share fresh ideas and explore opportunities for future collaboration,” said Angela Hart, NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Program Manager at Johnson. “Space food is a unique challenge that NASA is excited to engage commercial companies to address. Working with our commercial partners allows us to move forward to benefit not only astronauts, but also food systems on Earth.”
As NASA expands its capabilities in low Earth orbit, it is important that the commercial sector take on the support of space food production, allowing the agency to focus its resources on developing food systems for longer human spaceflight.
NASA will continue to share best practices and provide additional opportunities for interested commercial partners to share knowledge that will help create a successful commercial space ecosystem.
The agency’s commercial LEO strategy will provide the government with reliable and safe services at lower costs and allow the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars missions, as well as continue to use LEO as a training and testing ground for deep space missions.
