Astronauts could be given an enhanced diet during spaceflights that includes a greater variety and quantity of fruits, vegetables, and fish to improve their health and performance compared to standard spaceflight food, reports a study published in Scientific Reports.

Although conducted in a spaceflight simulation chamber on Earth with 16 individuals, these findings may have implications for astronaut health and decisions about food resource priorities on spaceflights.

Long-duration spaceflight is known to impact human health, and spacecraft size and power constraints limit what can be taken into space. The food astronauts eat may have the potential to mitigate some negative health changes during spaceflight, but in turn the food can be limited by mass, volume, shelf-life, and storage requirements.