Nutritional Biochemistry of Space Flight

Book excerpt: Besides covering a broad range of issues relating to space nutrition, this book presents the knowledge of nutritional biochemistry of space flight that has resulted from five decades of space life sciences research and operations. It covers research and observational findings on space travellers, as well as ground-based analogue studies with human subjects in such venues as bed rest, closed chambers, Antarctica, and under the sea. This book serves as a historical record of nutrition as related to space flight, specifically to nutrient requirements in a space flight environment. Evidence is reviewed from the first days of human space flight through what may very well be the early days of permanent off-Earth human presence. This information has been scattered in research articles and limited reviews that have been published over the years, in some cases documented only in out-of-publication NASA documents. The book will be of interest to scientists and physicians in many disciplines, including nutrition, physiology, biochemistry, space life sciences, and aerospace medicine. The text is aimed at an upper-undergraduate or graduate-student level of understanding.