Futuristic canned space drinks could spice up that three year trip to Mars
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Space is undeniably incredible—but the food options up there, not so much. Though cosmic cuisine has come a long way from the days of sucking liver and beef paste out of a tube in the 1960s, the options on the intergalactic menu are still limited. And with astronauts preparing to spend longer periods in zero gravity following the recent Artemis II mission, there’s never been a greater need for a wider variety of shelf-stable options to break up the dietary monotony. The team behind a new study published in the journal ACS Food Science & Technology have found a partial solution: a customizable fortified beverage made from nanoemulsions.
The roughly soda can-sized drink comes in various flavors and sweetness levels that astronauts can choose from. It is also enriched with omega-3 fatty acids, which are largely absent from astronauts’ normal daily diet. The emulsions are possible both on Earth and in zero gravity, which means astronauts could pick and choose which drink they want at a moment’s notice and based on their preferences or cravings. By sipping on these drinks, astronauts can break up the monotony, while simultaneously protecting their bodies against the hazards of space.
The only catch: the current version has a flat-soda consistency and a slightly sweet, fishy flavor, which isn’t exactly a crowd-pleaser. But after spending roughly three years getting to Mars, any way to shake things up (fishy or not) probably has its upside.
Spicing up space food
Many astronauts understandably get pretty tired of their rotating menu of slightly gooey and bland food. It can be so monotonous that many may fail to fulfil their daily calorie goals. Some astronauts even experience what researchers call space anorexia. Not getting proper nutrition poses risks anywhere, but it’s doubly so in space where higher reaction levels and muscle mass loss from microgravity take a toll. The longer an astronaut spends in space, the more these issues get amplified.
Currently, space agencies address the microgravity issue by having their astronauts engage in high resistance exercises to keep their muscles from atrophying. But that only goes so far. The chemist working on the new beverage wanted to see if they could find a way to subtly add nutrients into an astronaut’s diet that could help mitigate space’s harmful effects. They chose to focus on omega 3 fatty acids because past research has shown they may help in bolstering protection against space radiation and reportedly increase bone formation rate.
Space drink: floral, sugary, and a hint of fish oil
To actually get those nutrients into an astronaut’s body, the team turned to a concept already well established here on Earth: the fortified drink. A fortified drink is essentially any beverage with nutrients added that weren’t originally present. The practice dates back at least to the 1920s in the United States, when vitamin D was added to milk to help combat rickets. Today, nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, or fatty acids are commonly added to a variety of consumer drinks, from orange juice and energy drinks to plant-based milks.
In this case, the team used a process that combines water-soluble ingredients like sugar with omega-3 fatty acids, which are oil-soluble. The ingredients are then blended into a stable mixture to create the beverage.
After tinkering with a variety of sugars, fats, acids, and flavorings, they settled on six drink recipes with two sweetness levels (medium or high) and three flavor profiles reminiscent of rose, orange blossom, and floral citrus. Each serving is 11 fluid ounces, roughly the same size as a standard soda, and provides up to one-third of an astronaut’s recommended daily omega-3 fatty acid intake.
Though this study focused on omega-3s specifically, there’s not really anything stopping future versions from swapping in whatever nutrient an astronaut needs most. The overarching idea is that astronauts could pick their preferred flavor profile, sweetness level, and possibly even their nutrients on the fly, right there in the moment. Think of it as a much more limited, slightly fish-forward version of Coca-Cola’s option-abounding Freestyle fountain machine.
The emulsion drink isn’t quite ready for space missions yet. The researchers want to do more testing to improve the taste. It’s also not entirely clear how prolonged time spent hurling through space could impact beverage’s shelf life. And even when those kinks are worked out, the drink’s creators make clear it isn’t intended to come across as some wonder concoction. Instead, in a statement, paper co-author Volker Hessel called the fortified drinks “one small piece in the big puzzle of human space exploration.”
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