scholarly journals Sustaining Astronauts: Resource Limitations, Technology Needs, and Parallels between Spaceflight Food Systems and those on Earth

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9424
Author(s):  
Grace L. Douglas ◽  
Raymond M. Wheeler ◽  
Ralph F. Fritsche

Food and nutrition are critical to health and performance and therefore the success of human space exploration. However, the shelf-stable food system currently in use on the International Space Station is not sustainable as missions become longer and further from Earth, even with modification for mass and water efficiencies. Here, we provide a potential approach toward sustainability with the phased addition of bioregenerative foods over the course of NASA’s current mission plans. Significant advances in both knowledge and technology are still needed to inform nutrition, acceptability, safety, reliability, and resource and integration trades between bioregenerative and other food systems. Sustainability goals on Earth are driving similar research into bioregenerative solutions with the potential for infusion across spaceflight and Earth research that benefits both.

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-63
Author(s):  
Mariana Sandu ◽  
Stefan Mantea

Abstract Agri-food systems include branching ramifications, which connect in the upstream the input suppliers with farmers, and downstream farmers, processors, retailers and consumers. In the last decades, at the level of the regions, food systems have undergone rapid transformation as a result of technological progress. The paper analyzes the changes made to the structure, behavior and performance of the agri-food system and the impact on farmers and consumers. Also, the role of agricultural research as a determinant factor of transformation of agri-food system is analyzed. The research objective is to develop technologies that cover the entire food chain (from farm to fork) and meet the specific requirements of consumers (from fork to farm) through scientific solutions in line with the principles of sustainable agriculture and ensuring the safety and food safety of the population.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Zurek ◽  
Aniek Hebinck ◽  
Adrian Leip ◽  
Joost Vervoort ◽  
Marijke Kuiper ◽  
...  

Steering the EU food system towards a sustainability transformation requires a vast and actionable knowledge base available to a range of public and private actors. Few have captured this complexity by assessing food systems from a multi-dimensional and multi-level perspective, which would include (1) nutrition and diet, environmental and economic outcomes together with social equity dimensions and (2) system interactions across country, EU and global scales. This paper addresses this gap in food systems research and science communication by providing an integrated analytical approach and new ways to communicate this complexity outside science. Based on a transdisciplinary science approach with continuous stakeholder input, the EU Horizon2020 project ‘Metrics, Models and Foresight for European SUStainable Food And Nutrition Security’ (SUSFANS) developed a five-step process: Creating a participatory space; designing a conceptual framework of the EU food system; developing food system performance metrics; designing a modelling toolbox and developing a visualization tool. The Sustainable Food and Nutrition-Visualizer, designed to communicate complex policy change-impacts and trade-off questions, enables an informed debate about trade-offs associated with options for change among food system actors as well as in the policy making arena. The discussion highlights points for further research related to indicator development, reach of assessment models, participatory processes and obstacles in science communication.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (07) ◽  
pp. 46-53
Author(s):  
Burton Dicht

This article analyzes the decisions and technological challenges that drove the Space Shuttle’s development. The goal of the Shuttle program was to create a reusable vehicle that could reduce the cost of delivering humans and large payloads into space. Although the Shuttle was a remarkable flying machine, it never lived up to the goals of an airline-style operation with low operating costs. In January 2004, a year after the Columbia accident, President George W. Bush unveiled the “Vision for U.S. Space Exploration” to guide the U.S. space effort for the next two decades. A major component of the new vision, driven by the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, was to retire the Space Shuttle fleet as soon as the International Space Station assembly was completed. With cancellation of the Constellation program in 2010, the planned successor to the Shuttle, the U.S. space program is now in an era of uncertainty.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suellen Secchi MARTINELLI ◽  
Suzi Barletto CAVALLI ◽  
Rafaela Karen FABRI ◽  
Marcela Boro VEIROS ◽  
Amélia Borba Costa REIS ◽  
...  

Abstract The current scenario generated by the Covid-19 pandemic enhances the condition of food and nutrition insecurity due to the worsening of poverty, hunger and lack of access to food, as well as the excess consumption of foods considered unhealthy. The effects of the pandemic enhances the need for a new way of arranging the production, distribution and consumption of food, giving new meaning to the relationship between food, eating and the environment. Thus, it is suggested that a reflection be made on the strategies for the appropriate healthy, adequate and sustainable diet in Brazil to face this health emergency. Actions must be focused on the articulation of strategies that foster sovereignty, food and nutrition security and healthier and more sustainable food systems such as the strengthening of family farming; income assurance for the population; access to quality food; changes in the food environment; dissemination of information on healthy and sustainable food in official recommendations for the pandemic and food guides covering the entire food system, as well as food and nutrition education practices.


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