ALBERT

Description: NASA is preparing for long duration manned missions beyond low-Earth orbit that will be challenged in several ways, including long-term exposure to the space environment, impacts to crew physiological and psychological health, limited resources, and no resupply. The food system is one of the most significant daily factors that can be altered to improve human health, and performance during space exploration. Therefore, the paramount importance of determining the methods, technologies, and requirements to provide a safe, nutritious, and acceptable food system that promotes crew health and performance cannot be underestimated. The processed and prepackaged food system is the main source of nutrition to the crew, therefore significant losses in nutrition, either through degradation of nutrients during processing and storage or inadequate food intake due to low acceptability, variety, or usability, may significantly compromise the crew's health and performance. Shelf life studies indicate that key nutrients and quality factors in many space foods degrade to concerning levels within three years, suggesting that food system will not meet the nutrition and acceptability requirements of a long duration mission beyond low-Earth orbit. Likewise, mass and volume evaluations indicate that the current food system is a significant resource burden. Alternative provisioning strategies, such as inclusion of bioregenerative foods, are challenged with resource requirements, and food safety and scarcity concerns. Ensuring provisioning of an adequate food system relies not only upon determining technologies, and requirements for nutrition, quality, and safety, but upon establishing a food system that will support nutritional adequacy, even with individual crew preference and self-selection. In short, the space food system is challenged to maintain safety, nutrition, and acceptability for all phases of an exploration mission within resource constraints. This document presents the evidence for the Risk of Performance Decrement and Crew Illness Due to an Inadequate Food System and the gaps in relation to exploration, as identified by the NASA Human Research Program (HRP). The research reviewed here indicates strategies to establish methods, technologies, and requirements that increase food stability, support adequate nutrition, quality, and variety, enable supplementation with grow-pick-and-eat salad crops, ensure safety, and reduce resource use. Obtaining the evidence to establish an adequate food system is essential, as the resources allocated to the food system may be defined based on the data relating nutritional stability and food quality requirements to crew performance and health.

Description: Several dwarf tomato and pepper varieties were evaluated under ISS-simulated growth conditions (22C, 50% RH, 1500 ppm CO2, and 300 mol m(exp -2) s(exp -1) of light for 16 h per day) with the goal of selecting those with the best growth, nutrition, and organoleptic potential for use in a pick and eat salad crop system on ISS and future exploration flights. Testing included six cultivars of tomato (Red Robin, Scarlet Sweet N Neat, Tiny Tim, Mohamed, Patio Princess, and Tumbler) and six cultivars of pepper (Red Skin, Fruit Basket, Cajun Belle, Chablis, Sweet Pickle, and Pompeii). Plants were grown to an age sufficient to produce fruit (70 to 106 days for tomato and 109 days for pepper). Tomato fruits were harvested when they showed full red color, beginning ca. 70-days age and then at weekly intervals thereafter, while peppers were grown until numerous fruits showed color and all fruits (green and colored) were harvested once at the end of the test. Plant sizes, yields, and nutritional attributes were measured and used to down-select to three cultivars for each species. In particular, we were interested in cultivars that were short (dwarf) but still produced high yields. Nutritional data included elemental (Ca, Mg, Fe, and K) composition, vitamin K, phenolics, lycopene, anthocyanin, lutein, and zeaxanthin. The three down-selected cultivars for each species were evaluated for sensory attributes, including overall acceptability, appearance, color intensity aroma, flavor and texture. The combined data were compared and given weighting factors to rank the cultivars as potential candidates for testing in space. For tomato, the ranking was 1) cv. Mohamed, 2) cv. Red Robin, and 3) cv. Sweet N Neat. For pepper, the ranking was 1) cv. Pompeii, 2) cv. Red Skin, and 3) cv. Fruit Basket. These rankings are somewhat subjective but provide a good starting point for conducting higher fidelity testing with these crops (e.g., testing with LED lighting similar to the Veggie plant unit), and ultimately conducting flight experiments.

Description: Several cultivars of dwarf tomatoes and dwarf peppers were studied as possible candidate for space crops. Results showed the tomato cvs. Red Robin, Mohamed, and Sweet 'N' Neat produced the greatest yields, while pepper cvs. Pompeii, Red Skin, and Fruit Basket produced the greatest yields. The tomato and pepper cultivars were also analyzed by taste panels for organoleptic attributes, and all the cultivars were found to be acceptable by the taste panelists.

Description: No abstract available

Description: No abstract available

Description: Several varieties of leafy vegetables were evaluated with the goal of selecting those with the best growth, nutrition, and organoleptic acceptability for ISS. Candidate species were narrowed to commercially available cultivars with desirable growth attributes for space (e.g., short stature and rapid growth). Seeds were germinated in controlled environment chambers under conditions similar to what might be found in the Veggie plant growth chamber on ISS. Eight varieties of leafy greens were grown: 'Tyee' spinach, 'Flamingo' spinach, 'Outredgeous' Red Romaine lettuce, 'Waldmann's Dark Green' leaf lettuce, 'Bull's Blood' beet, 'Rhubarb' Swiss chard, 'Tokyo Bekana' Chinese cabbage, and Mizuna. Plants were harvested at maturity and biometric data on plant height, diameter, chlorophyll content, and fresh mass were obtained. Tissue was ground and extractions were performed to determine the tissue elemental content of Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca) and Iron (Fe). Following the biometric/elemental evaluation, four of the eight varieties were tested further for levels of anthocyanins, antioxidant (ORAC-fluorescein) capacity, lutein, zeaxanthin, and Vitamin K. For sensory evaluation, 'Outredgeous' lettuce, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, and Mizuna plants were grown, harvested when mature, packaged under refrigerated conditions, and sent to the JSC Space Food Systems Laboratory. Tasters evaluated overall acceptability, appearance, color intensity, bitterness, flavor, texture, crispness and tenderness. All varieties received acceptable scores with overall ratings greater than 6 on a 9-point hedonic scale. Chinese cabbage was the highest rated, followed by Mizuna, 'Outredgeous' lettuce, and Swiss chard. Based on our results, the selected varieties of Chinese cabbage, lettuce, Swiss chard and Mizuna seem suitable for a pick-and-eat scenario on ISS with a ranking based on all factors analyzed to help establish priority.

Description: No abstract available

Description: No abstract available

Description: Spinach, lettuce, chard, beet, mizuna, and Chinese cabbage were grown in plant chambers to assess their potential as candidate crops for space food production systems. The species and varieties were compared in terms of biomass yields, size, nutrient value, and taste factors, as determined by a taste panel. Although other species might be considered for future studies, Chinese cabbage ranked number one from the testing, chard second, mizuna third, and red-leaf lettuce fourth. Results from the testing and analyses will be presented.