Why NASA Developed a Cookbook

In 2010, the 111th Congress and President Obama both published long term goals for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Both included a long term mission for manned space flights to Mars in the 2030s. Since that time NASA has shifted the majority of its efforts toward that target. Research on the International Space Station (ISS), for example, has focused on subjects like the long term impacts of microgravity environments. On earth NASA has focused its efforts toward a similar goal. Several projects through the Human Research Program have endeavored to research factors such as human health countermeasures, exploration medical capability, and human factors and behavioral performance in analog environments, simulating how explorers will inhabit and exist on the surface of Mars. One such project, the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), began its first mission in 2013, sending six crew members to live in a 1,200 square foot dome for four months in the barren volcanic ash fields of Mauna Loa.HI-SEAS’ first campaign’s objective was to research the nutritional and psychosocial issues of a proposed Mars food system. This study helped show that cooking and eating will be an important activity for Mars astronauts for physical and psychological health by improving appetites, building community relationships, and maintaining morale. The HI-SEAS team maintained a blog and youtube channel, documenting their lives and scientific pursuits. Much of this content recorded information about cooking and eating on the station, including a video series entitled Meals for Mars, a makeshift cooking show about producing meals with freeze dried and shelf stable ingredients. These psychosocial and nutritional results make an interesting comparison to the theoretical work completed at the Johnson Space Center in the previous decade.In my presentation I will use NASA’s digital Technical Reports Server to look at documents from the Human Research Program in conjunction with the HI-SEAS blog and video archives. By using these materials as primary source documents, I will show how the development of food science in human spaceflight has shifted from theoretical nutrition to a more humanistic model, incorporating personal insights on the comforts of earth.keywords: space food, Mars food, HI-SEAS, food studies, food preferences