Recommendations for Developing Space Suit Integrated Food Systems and Delivering Nutrition Before, During, and After Lunar EVA

The concept of providing hydration and nutrition during extravehicular activity (EVA) is nearly as
old as the space program itself. Astronauts currently have access to 32 ounces of water through
a disposable in-suit drink bag (DIDB) while they are confined to their space suit. During the
Apollo program, methods for providing food/nutrition to crewmembers in space suits were
included as contingency solutions (1) but were eventually abandoned. The main reasons that
provision of in-suit nutrition beyond water was discontinued after Apollo were the complicated
engineering requirements, the additional mass and volume that was required for the applicable
food formulations, hardware needed for a suit-specialized food system, and because the
perceived need for in-suit nutrition during EVAs was not sufficient during the Space Shuttle and
the International Space Station (ISS) eras. A custom-made 165-kcal fruit bar was fitted into the
EVA suit during the Space Shuttle program, but crewmembers rarely consumed it during the
EVA and rather chose to consume it before or after suited activities (2). Since 2011, between 4
and 13 EVAs have been conducted from the ISS each year, with durations ranging from 1:32 to
8:17 hours (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/spacewalks ). It has been acceptable for the
crewmembers to schedule food intake around these relatively infrequent suited activities.
Because upcoming Artemis missions will include nominal 8-hour lunar exploration EVAs that are
expected to increase in frequency to several (4 to 5) sorties per week (3), the desire for an in-suit nutrition system has increased. In preparation for these missions, requirements to provide
in-suit nutrition has been outlined in the most recent NASA Human Spaceflight Standards
documents (4). Establishing general recommendations for in-suit nutrition systems precedes the
selection of a lunar EVA pressure suit system. The current document is intended to define the
rationale for nutrition to support EVA (whether in-suit or from the pantry in the habitat),
document the requirements, constraints, and crewmember preferences, and recommend
necessary next steps for developing an in-suit EVA nutrition system.

Assessments presented in this report include a review of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) food
products as potential in-suit formulations, a comparison of conceptual designs for delivering
nutrition to a crewmember while confined to a space suit, an evaluation of space suit volume
constraints for the placement of in-suit nutrition systems, and feedback from astronauts
regarding preferences for nutrition support during EVA. Based on these assessments,
recommendations were formulated that can be used to help develop a method to deliver
nutrition safely and acceptably to a crewmember while they are confined to a space suit for an
EVA duration of up to 8 hours, and a total time in the suit of up to 12 hours.