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Missions to the moon and Mars pose nutritional challenges for astronauts. Now, a new paper on space-grown food poses nutritional challenges for astronauts, but volunteers from NASA's Open Science Data Repository Analysis Working Groups (OSDR-AWG) are working together to analyze data on astronaut health.

The Analysis Working Groups examine biomedical data from NASA missions and space experiments collected in the NASA Open Science Data Repository. These teams use the data to answer questions in basic science, applied science, and health outcomes for space exploration.

For example, the recent in npj Microgravity on space-grown food examined data on lettuce grown on the International Space Station and the Tiangong II space station. It found that the crop contained 29%–31% less calcium and 25% less magnesium than Earth lettuce, falling short of astronaut requirements.

The study revealed two further health challenges for astronauts relying on space grown veggies.

• Disrupted calcium signaling: the analysis revealed that astronauts experienced changes in the expression of 163 calcium genes, which could accelerate bone loss.
• Leaky gut syndrome: data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) show astronauts experienced compromised intestinal barriers due to altered protein production and regulation, likely disrupting their ability to absorb nutrients.

The researchers proposed a solution to these problems, too: bioengineered crops. Perhaps plants could be developed that are enriched in calcium or therapeutic proteins to compensate for the deficiencies observed in the space-grown lettuce.

This research was a collaboration between the ALSDA (Ames Life Sciences Data Archive), the Human Analysis and Plant Working Groups of the OSDR (the expansion of NASA Genelab centered at NASA Ames), along with BioAstra, a space life science non-profit. The data came primarily from OSDR with contributions from the Space Omics and Medical Atlas at Weill Cornell.

You can join the OSDR-AWGs yourself and help plan the future of human space exploration. Dozens of project groups are active at any time. Learn more about the AWGs .