Manned space missions to the Moon and beyond are currently being researched. Over the next decades the first man on Mars could be science fact - not science fiction.
This extraordinary step for mankind will need some amazing advances in technology and engineering. And it is not just interplanetary spacecraft and habitats that we need to develop and build to explore these hostile environments.
It is also a question of ‘what will be for dinner on Mars’?
On the International Space Station the European Space Agency and its international partners are investigating this question. This programme examines food and nutrition as a vital ingredient for life on Earth and in space, and discovers why we need food in the first place and what it represents in our cultural and daily life.
The programme illustrates how our bodies process food as a source of energy and building materials. It looks at the importance of healthy nutrition for a healthy life and what can happen if we eat either too much, or the wrong type of food, here on Earth and in space.
The programme also focuses on research for preserving and growing food for long term human spaceflights; research that is creating valuable technologies for future food supplies on Earth where climate change and population growth are big challenges all over the world.
Life scientist Nicole Sentse, whose work for ESA on the human spaceflight programme gives her unique insights into food and nutrition on Earth and in space, presents the programme.
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