太空厨房及饮食保障研究

Research of space kitchen and dietary provision

迄今为止,航天食品研究和飞行食谱的设计都强调了食品的功能和营养,还未对人类在太空中的进食体验给予足够关注。面向长期载人航天飞行任务,为保障航天员营养健康,亟需改善航天员在太空中的进食体验。太空厨房提供航天员在执行航天飞行任务时进行饮食准备和就餐的环境及其配套设备。太空厨房设备配置的合理性直接影响航天员在轨工作的效率、进食体验和营养健康。该文聚焦于如何提高和增进航天员在轨长期生活饮食保障水平和感受,总结了航天食品发展及具有良好感官品质的航天食品加工技术;根据食品加工处理方式,太空厨房设备需实现的基本功能包括加热、冷藏、饮水分配、发酵、焙烤及餐余垃圾处理等,其中餐余垃圾处理设备主要功能是抑菌防霉和高效压缩,避免破坏舱内环境,节约舱内有限的活动空间;航天饮水供给与在轨回收技术对于维持水平衡及节约上行补给载荷起关键作用。长保质期航天食品研发需要兼顾食用安全性及营养素稳定性;适应微重力环境、在轨使用方便高效、轻量化、绿色节能及多功能集成化是太空厨房设备的设计与研制原则。受控生态环境下食材在轨种植、食品在轨制备及智能太空厨房是未来面向月球基地、载人火星探测等长期载人航天工程太空厨房的发展趋势。

Good food and nutrition help maintain psychological and physical status of the astronauts. Maintaining adequate nutrient supply in the aerospace food system is one of the key issues for mission success and occupant health and safety. Since the manned space flight in the 1960 s, the space food system has undergone tremendous changes. To date, the manned space mission has been focused on low Earth orbit(LEO) exploring, and the current pre-packaged food system is regularly develped to meet those missions’ requirements. The principles of aerospace food research and flight recipe design have emphasized the functional and nutritional aspects of food, and have not paid enough attention to food in space. Through the human-food interaction design, the astronauts’ experience in space is improved from three aspects: Sensory, emotional and environmental. The space kitchen provides an environment in which astronauts prepare for meals and eat while performing space missions and associated equipment. The rationality of space kitchen equipment configuration directly affects the efficiency, eating experience and nutritional health of astronauts working in orbit. This article focuses on how to ensure the long-term survival quality of astronauts in the food security and experience, the development of space food and space food processing technology with good sensory quality were summarized. According to the food processing methods, the basic functions that space kitchen equipment should possess including heating, refrigeration, drinking water distribution, fermentation, baking and meal waste treatment, etc.The main function of the meal waste treatment equipment is antibacterial and mildewproof and efficient compression, to avoid damage to the cabin environment and save the limited space in the cabin. Space drinking water provision and in-orbit recovery technologies play a key role in maintaining the cabin water balance and saving upward replenishment loads. Long-term shelf life space food research and development, food safety and nutrient stability need to be taken into account. Space foods and packages with shelf life of five years are currently undergoing validation tests. To adaption to the micro-gravity environment, easy using in the weightlessness environment, lightweight, energy-saving and multi-functional integration are the principal issues for the design and development of space kitchen equipment. With the advancement of manned space exploration targets such as the Moon and Mars, all major space power countries are considering introducing bioregeneration food systems as development priorities, such as the Advanced Food Technology(AFT) project, China’s CELSS180 project, and Russia’s MARS500 project. In the controlled ecological life support system, the in-orbit cultivation of plant, the preparation of food and the intelligent space kitchen are the development trend of space kitchens for long-term manned space missions such as Lunar or Mars bases. The Moon, Mars and Venus, where the atmosphere, gravity, soil, radiation and other conditions are different from those on the Earth, which may not support the germination, growth and development of plants. Therefore, to understand how plants grow on these extraterrestrial planets, efforts should be made to develop specific ground models to study in advance the nutritional absorption and growth characteristics of plants in specific environments by simulating the atmosphere and radiation parameters of planets.