Broadcast 1887 (Special Edition)

Guests: Dr. Vadim Rygalov, Annie Wargetz. Topics: Dietary impact & related nutritional issues for extreme habitats & spaceflight. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. We welcomed back Dr. Vadim Rygalov and for the first time UND SpSt graduate student Annie Wargetz to discuss her exceptional research regarding dietary & nutritional requirements for deep space mission astronauts. Using Earth models such as submarines, extreme habitats, historical explorations, the Antarctica habitats, plus the ISS, our two guests shined an important light on a seldom discussed set of issues regarding astronaut nutritional challenges for deep space missions. In the first segment of this two hour discussion, Dr. Rygalov introduced the subject to us & then he introduced us to Ms. Wargetz to discuss her work, research, & findings. Many topics & issues were covered in this segment ranging from a broad discussion about extreme historical exploration missions, Earth habitats, submarines, the ISS, & more. We learned what is known about deep space nutrition & astronaut food, eating, & caloric issues. Annie talked about what we have learned from the different terrestrial models referenced in our discussion, plus many other issues presenting challenges such as food preparation, the lack of anything fresh, the lack of color in food, & the use of processed & chemical foods as is the standard for today. She also talked about plans to mitigate these challenges on deep space mission flights. Bringing fresh vegetables, seeds, even small animals on a mission are plausible & were addressed. One caller asked for a definition of a closed life support system. Both our guests went into detail about this, including partially closed systems, bioregenetive systems, physical/chemical systems, & hybrids. Vadim brought us current with our existing technology & what is likely to be available in the near term. This is a comprehensive discussion pertaining to deep space environmental systems. We started the second segment with our guests answering a question from the firsts segment about married couples in space. Don't miss their response & what Vadim said was his choice for the first crew for a deep space mission & why. Mars 500 & Biosphere 2 were mentioned in their response. Two other issues that were discussed were transit times to Mars with the faster travel time mitigating some of the human factor challenges including nutritional issues. Also, it was clearly stated that to take on board the right type of nutrition, fresh items, seeds, perhaps small animals like chickens, a heavy lift launcher such as SLS was needed as the nutritional/food items will consume payload on the mission. Vadim said heavy lift was needed to carry out the mission in one launch given the need for substantive payload dedicated to food/nutrition & astronaut well being. Gender differences were discussed which is why Vadim suggested an all male first crew. Other questions were asked about artificial gravity, developing & using a nutritional pill for space missions, issues about why astronauts don't eat much on the ISS & more. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog. You can email our guests through me.