Nutrition has been crucial in every era of exploration on Earth, from the days when scurvy plagued sailors to the last century, when polar explorers died from malnutrition or, in some cases, nutrient toxicity. New research sheds light on the risks of inadequate nutrition and food supply, leading to poor health and performance of astronauts during missions, as well as to poor health in the long term (nutrition and food-related risks).
Calcium kinetics studies at the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. NASA
The space food system must provide the crew with safe, nutritious, and acceptable food to maintain crew health and performance during spaceflight. Standards and control mechanisms exist for food safety during spaceflight. Adequate nutrition and food safety have been demonstrated in six-month and limited one-year missions. Achieving and maintaining acceptable, nutritious, and safe food systems in long-duration spaceflight conditions with limited resupply is challenging and depends on factors such as the duration of isolation from Earth, menu development, suitability for microgravity conditions, palatability, packaging, and storage, according to the NASA press service.
NASA Expedition 36 Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg holds a piece of food in front of her in the Node 1 module during a meal. NASA
When astronauts embark on long-term space missions, they will need to grow their own food, as pre-packaged meals from Earth lose their nutritional value over time. The BioNutrients project at the Ames Research Center’s Space Biosciences Division has addressed this issue by using genetic engineering to create microbial-based foods capable of producing nutrients and compounds, such as drugs, with minimal resource input.
The process involves storing dried microbes and food media in small bioreactors that can be rehydrated and grown years later. The project has already produced carotenoids for antioxidants, follistatin to combat muscle loss, and yogurt and kefir for a healthy gut biome, according to the NASA press service. The team of scientists includes: Ball, N. Sharif, S. Downing, S. Gresser, A. Hami, R. Oscar, R. Hindupur, A. Hiromi, K. Kostakis, A. Levry, J. Murikami, M. Settles, A. M. Sims, K. Villanueva, and A. Wu.
iss068e036727 (January 3, 2023) — NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 flight engineer Nicole Mann works in the International Space Station’s Harmony module on the BioNutrients-2 study, which uses genetically modified microbes to provide nutrients and possibly other compounds and pharmaceuticals as needed in space. NASA
Two different types of modified baker’s yeast were cultured in BioNutrients-1 (BN-1) Gen-0 bioreactors, producing beta-carotene and zeaxanthin. Their shelf life at room temperature on the International Space Station (ISS) is currently 3.9 years. Four additional types of organisms and products were launched in BioNutrients-2 (BN-2), demonstrating the production of carotenoids, follistatin, yogurt, and kefir in Gen-1 bioreactors, which have a 91% reduced mass and a flat design. The yeast-based products are expected to have a shelf life of 5 years when stored at ambient conditions. Yogurt and kefir studies are currently underway.
The successes of BN-1 and BN-2 pave the way for further biomanufacturing processes that will ensure the safe consumption of essential nutrients and compounds during long-duration space missions.
An astronaut mixed yeast cultures in Gen-0 bioreactors used in the Bionutrients-1 experiment on the ISS. Following the successful first launch, a more compact, flat-bottomed container for Gen-1 bioreactors was developed. NASA
The BioNutrients-3 kefir cultivation experiment has been completed during a lunar analog mission. From March 4 to 9, 2024, at the Hawaiian Space Exploration Site (HI-SEAS), located on Mauna Loa volcano on the Big Island, Katie Fisher, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Center, served as mission commander for the six-day lunar analog experiment. During the mission, she collaborated with the Synthetic Biology BioNutrients team, testing methods for continuously passaging and growing BioNutrients-3 kefir cultures.
The mission was a valuable learning experience for the team of five international analog astronauts. They worked together, overcoming communication problems and power outages while continuing to conduct experiments, compile reports, and conduct medical examinations.
Analog astronauts Katie Fisher and Tugcag Dumlupinar of Turkey perform the hydration and passage stage of kefir cultures in a bag. Top right: Pre-incubation. Bottom right: 24 hours post-incubation. Photos courtesy of Katie Fisher. NASA
By successfully completing the kefir passivation experiment, the team demonstrated the feasibility of daily production of fresh kefir cultures, which will provide future astronauts with valuable probiotic cultures and nutrients. Overall, the experiment was simple to conduct, requiring minimal resources and time. A pH indicator and color scale allowed the crew to easily determine when the culture had reached its optimal pH level. All 15 experimental batches have been shipped back to Ames and are awaiting pH analysis, viability testing, and contamination checks.
A series of NASA BioNutrients experiments is testing ways to use microorganisms to produce nutrients that will be essential for human health during future long-duration deep space exploration missions.
Some vital nutrients do not have the shelf life needed to cover multi-year manned missions, such as the mission to Mars, and may need to be produced in space to keep astronauts healthy.
To address this need, the BioNutrients project uses a biomanufacturing approach similar to the production of familiar fermented foods like yogurt. However, these products will also include specific types and quantities of nutrients that the crew will be able to consume in the future.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 commander Suni Williams demonstrates a BioNutrients supplement production kit during an experiment aboard the International Space Station. The experiment uses modified yeast to produce nutrients and vitamins essential for the health of future astronauts. NASA
The first experiment in the series, BioNutrients-1, was designed to evaluate the five-year stability and performance of a portable system called a production pack, which uses a modified yeast microorganism to produce fresh vitamins on demand and in space. The BioNutrients-1 experiments began after several sets of production packs were launched to the station in 2019. This collection included spare production packs as backups that could be used should the experiment need to be repeated during the five-year study. The planned experiments concluded in January 2024, with spare production packs remaining aboard the orbiting laboratory and in the BioNutrients laboratory at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, where the ground team conducts experiments in parallel with the crew’s work.
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International Space Station and NASA Game Changing Development program managers worked to coordinate the crew’s time to conduct the BioNutrients-1 supplemental experiment using spare packets. This extended the study’s duration to nearly six years in orbit, allowing the crew’s valuable observations and data obtained during the supplemental experiment to be used in the subsequent BioNutrients-3 experiment, which completed its astronaut-led experiment in April 2024 and is scheduled for launch to the station this year. Astronauts on the space station will freeze the sample and then return it to Earth for analysis to determine how much yeast grew and how much nutrients were obtained during the experiment. This will help us estimate the shelf life of the packets.
Missions to the Moon and Mars pose nutritional challenges for astronauts, but volunteers from the NASA Open Science Data Repository Analysis Working Groups (OSDR-AWGs) are collaborating to analyze astronaut health data. The analysis working groups examine biomedical data collected during NASA missions and space experiments, collected in the NASA Open Science Data Repository. These groups use this data to answer fundamental and applied science questions and to assess the impact of space exploration on human health.
An article on space-grown foods analyzed data on lettuce grown on the International Space Station and the Tiangong-2 space station. It was found that this lettuce contained 29–31% less calcium and 25% less magnesium than terrestrial lettuce, which is insufficient for astronauts’ needs.
A study has found two additional health problems in astronauts who eat space-grown vegetables.
The analysis found that the astronauts had changes in the expression of 163 calcium genes, which could accelerate bone loss.
Volunteers in the OSDR-Analysis working groups studied the nutritional value of crops grown in low Earth orbit and the physiological effects of space-induced nutrient deficiencies on astronauts. npj Microgravity/Barbero et al., 2025
Data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) show that the astronauts had disrupted intestinal barriers due to altered protein production and regulation, which likely impaired their ability to absorb nutrients.
It may be possible to develop plants enriched with calcium or therapeutic proteins to compensate for the deficiency observed in space-grown lettuce.
This study was a collaboration between ALSDA (Ames Life Sciences Data Archive), the Human and Plant Analysis Working Groups of OSDR (an extension of NASA Genelab, based at NASA Ames), and BioAstra, a nonprofit organization dedicated to space life sciences. The data were derived primarily from OSDR, with contributions from Weill Cornell University’s Space Omics and Medical Atlas.
ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski became the first space culinary expert to deliver pierogi – traditional Polish dumplings – to the International Space Station during the Axiom 4 mission.
Sławosz is bringing a taste of home to space with a special menu created in collaboration with a renowned chef and a family-run business from Poland. The menu includes cabbage and mushroom dumplings, tomato noodle soup, Polish lecho with buckwheat, and apple crumble for dessert, according to the ESA press service.
Most of the space menu consists of canned or freeze-dried foods in plastic packaging. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a luxury available only upon the arrival of a spaceship with new supplies.
Food tasting for the Axiom Mission 4 crew. ESA
Bonus meals provided to individual crew members make up approximately 10% of their menu. Astronauts say these extra meals add variety to their diet, improve their mental well-being, and help them bond with their crew in orbit.
Freeze-drying is a lengthy process that completely removes water from foods, preserving their properties and structure for years to come.
Sławosz collaborated with LYOFOOD, a small Polish family business with over thirty years of experience in freeze-drying technology, to find a solution that would allow the dumplings to be enjoyed after adding hot water from dispensers on the space station.
Renowned Polish chef and restaurateur Mateusz Gessler created three main courses, and the apple crumble dessert is included in the LYOFOOD menu.
Ignis Menu:
Dumplings with cabbage and mushrooms,
Tomato soup with noodles,
Polish stew “lecho” with buckwheat
Apple crumble
Space- grade
packaging for dumplings. ESA
Microgravity affects bone density, muscle tone and nutrition, so it’s vital that Slavos’ diet contains the nutrients he needs.
An astronaut’s space menu includes a variety of foods designed to meet the nutritional needs and operational requirements onboard. Teams on Earth begin selecting dishes several months in advance, as the food must be sent to a laboratory for safety and nutritional testing after being freeze-dried, heat-stabilized, or vacuum-packed.
Before the Ignis mission, Slavos participated in several space food tastings and compiled food and drink ratings. This helped determine which dishes would form the main diet for the entire mission.
This photo, taken on August 15, 2025, highlights dinner on the International Space Station. One tray holds shrimp cocktail on whole-grain crackers, while the other holds sushi made with seaweed, Spam, tuna, and rice. Both trays are secured with Velcro to the Unity Module’s galley. The shrimp and crackers are held in place by seasoning, and the sushi is held in place by the surface tension of moisture.
NASA/Johnny Kim
Activities aboard the space station will support long-duration missions like Artemis and future human expeditions to Mars.
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