"Formulation of Personalized, Fortified Beverage Nanoemulsions for Space Exploration with Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids" ACS Food Science & Technology
After the success of Artemis II, longer space journeys are expected, raising new health and nutritional challenges for astronauts. Current space foods rely on dried, shelf-stable items. A study published in ACS Food Science & Technology suggests fortified beverages could help fill nutrient gaps and add variety to astronauts' diets. Researchers created drinks using emulsions that are stable in Earth's gravity and microgravity. Their recipes deliver omega-3 fatty acids with customizable sweetness levels and flavors.
Being one small piece in the big puzzle of human space exploration and helping astronauts to stay healthy is a visionary privilege." - Volker Hessel
Adapted from ACS Food Science & Technology 2026, DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.5c01291
Astronauts lose bone mass and muscle density while they're in outer space because of the lack of gravity, says Svenja Schmidt, the lead author of the study. High-resistance exercises can help mitigate this loss, but so can incorporating nutrient-enriched foods into the astronauts' diets.
"Fortified beverage emulsions could potentially help there, especially when providing nutrients at levels not met by normal nutrition," says Schmidt. "We suggested omega-3 fatty acids to help protect against space radiation and increase the bone formation rate."
The team, led by Schmidt, Volker Hessel and Ian Fisk, focused on beverage emulsions that blend water-soluble components (like sugar) and oil-soluble components (like essential oil flavorings and omega-3 fatty acids) into a stable mixture. Emulsions like these are often used in commercially available water-based drinks like lemonade and sodas.
Researchers tested a system that continuously combines small amounts of oil and water, utilizing capillary forces, and spontaneously creates well-dispersed emulsions. Therefore, Hessel says, this microfluidic system is a suitable technology for making beverage emulsions both on Earth and in microgravity environments like the International Space Station.
After testing several combinations of coconut oil fats, emulsifiers, fruit acids, sugar, flavorings and omega-3 fatty acid-rich fish oil, the researchers settled on six drink recipes with customizable components. The recipes offer two sweetness levels and three flavors to choose from, including floral and citrus options. An 11-fluid-ounce (330-milliliter) serving of each new beverage contains up to one-third of the recommended daily omega-3 fatty acid intake. Schmidt explains that the final consistency of the emulsified drinks is similar to a flat soda that has lost its carbonation.
Next, the researchers want to determine how these beverages taste - in gravity and in microgravity - and what the shelf-life would be during space travel. Hessel concludes that "being one small piece in the big puzzle of human space exploration and helping astronauts to stay healthy is a visionary privilege."
The authors acknowledge funding from the Ph.D. Program of the Nottingham-Adelaide Alliance, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence, "Plants for Space," and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
