Astronauts and Space Food

Supplying the energy for the astronaut’s activity is an important factor in space explorations. Space food also reduces the harmful effects of space besides supplying energy. Space food entails a variety of food products, specially created for consumption by astronauts in the outer space. The food has specific properties in order to provide balanced nutrition for individuals working in space, while being easy and safe to store, prepare and consume in theweightless environments of manned spacecraft. Also, foods taken into space must be light-weight, compact, tasty and nutritious. They must also be kept for long periods without refrigeration. A variety of menus of foods provide each astronaut with 2500 or more calories per day. In this paper, the food ingredients required for astronauts and and essential nutritional factors is studied. Additionally, the trend of space food system improvement is mentioned briefly.Furthermore, the effect of situation which exists in the space, like the impact on microgravity, on astronaut’s body, and protection of the astronaut body are mentioned.