SPECIAL EVENT MEALS
Research Area: Human Behavior and Performance
Expedition(s): 14
Principal Investigator(s): ● Alain Maillet, Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES),
Toulouse, France
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The goal of the Special Event
Meals project was to provide the
International Space Station (ISS)
crew with high-quality food cans
that could be the core of
celebration meals such as New
Year, the arrival of new crew,
birthdays, etc. This gives the crew
the possibility to break the
monotony of ISS standard daily
food, thus helping psychological
support (useful for long-duration
flights).
RESULTS
Since 2008, these meals have formed part of the NASA food list for crew bonus containers. The
food was not only used in bonus containers and special meals for the crews but also used to
support scientific experiments when the experiment requires a special imposed diet, such as
within the ENERGY experiment. For the ENERGY experiment, the crew was eating this food first
during the baseline data collection before flight and then during the flight (normally after
having passed 3 months in space). The ENERGY menus' container was composed of 4 meals (2
breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 1 dinner), which was taken by the crew at the beginning of the
experimental session (ie, day 0 and day 1).
In 2006, 10 different recipes were available; today 25 recipes are available either for physiology
and nutrition experiments support or for bonus containers.
This investigation is complete; however additional results are pending publication.
First use of the Special Event Meals during the Astrolab mission in- ESA image.