A Six-step Practical Approach: Menu Design through Consumer Satisfaction in a Regenerative Life Support System

The concept of a Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) for long duration spaceflight missions includes one possible scenario of humans existing on a vegetarian diet. The difficulties in designing menus for a vegetarian diet that consistently meet daily caloric requirements and nutritional balance as well as provide variety and palatability have been identified by several groups [1] [2] [3]. A six-step process has been developed for use in a CELSS that accounts for both human requirements and crop production: (1) determine human nutritional needs, (2) identify and select candidate crops, (3) plan the menu, (4) evaluate consumer satisfaction, (5) make revisions and (6) document results. This iterative process complies with the nutritional goals and the specific constraints of interplanetary missions. This six-step approach is demonstrated and validated utilizing examples of performance data from the operation of the CELSS Antarctic Analog Project's (CAAP) crop production chamber and the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Bioregenerative Planetary Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex).