NASA’s Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory has a long and rich history of supporting education and outreach efforts. To this end, we have developed this book aimed at upper elementary/intermediate students which highlights many aspects of space nutrition. The book provides a brief history of human space flight, and details the role of nutrition throughout, from foods first eaten in space to the future of space exploration.

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.

Over the years, a large body of knowledge has developed regarding the ways in which space flight affects the health of the personnel involved. Now, for the first time, this clinical knowledge on how to diagnose and treat conditions that either develop during a mission or because of a mission has been compiled by Drs. Michael Barratt and Sam L. Pool of the NASA/Johnson Space Center. Complete with detailed information on the physiological and psychological affects of space flight as well as how to diagnose and treat everything from dental concerns to decompression to dermatological problems encountered, this text is a must have for all those associated with aerospace medicine.

The new edition of the Handbook of Nutrition and Food follows the format of the bestselling earlier editions, providing a reference guide for many of the issues on health and well being that are affected by nutrition. Completely revised, the third edition contains 20 new chapters, 50 percent new figures. A comprehensive resource, this book is a reference guide for many of the issues on health and well being that are affected by nutrition. Divided into five parts, the sections cover food, including its composition, constituents, labeling, and analysis; nutrition as a science, covering basic terminology, nutritional biochemistry, nutrition and genetics, food intake regulation, and micronutrients; nutrient needs throughout the human life cycle; assessment of nutrient intake adequacy; and clinical nutrition, from assessments to a wide variety of disease and health topics.

Tens of thousands of miles above Earth's atmosphere, orbiting this planet like pieces from a child's giant erector set, NASA's massive International Space Station slowly takes shape. When completed, as many as 16 countries will provide crew members for this orbiting international community. But while this will not be the first extended stay of humans in space-Skylab, Mir Space Station, and Shuttle-Mir missions all involved extended-stay periods-it will give birth to some new questions about one of space exploration's biggest concerns: providing adequate nutrition essential to good physical and mental health in space. Nutrition in Spaceflight and Weightlessness Models consolidates nutritional observations from 38 years of human spaceflight. It is a compilation of nutritional knowledge and accomplishments from the early 1970's to the recent Shuttle-MIR program. It provides basic nutritional concepts, as well as broad coverage, of the effect of space and weightlessness on nutrition status and physiology. Nutrition in Spaceflight and Weightlessness Models addresses the utility of ground-based weightlessness simulations; the role of electrolytes, calcium, protein, iron, and micronutrients in optimal nutrition; and energy utilization by space crews. The book also explores regenerative life-support and food systems for space and planetary missions; the results of basic research in metabolism that illustrate the physiological changes that occur during spaceflight; new concepts and recommendations for astronaut nutrition in future spaceflights; and, the lab capabilities of the International Space Station.