The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine, in conjunction with consortium partners California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced its inaugural selection for the Space Health Ingress Program (SHIP) solicitation. The selected project, "Future Foods for Space: Mobilizing the Future Foods Community to Accelerate Advances in Space Health," is under the leadership of Dr. Denneal Jamison-McClung from the University of California, Davis.
This project aims to advance space food systems that produce efficient, nutritious meals to support long-term space exploration and habitation. Jamison-McClung and her team are committed to revitalizing the food-related space health research community by actively involving academic and food industry researchers who have not previously participated in space exploration.
The development of future foods is intended to address significant challenges faced by both the food industry and astronauts in space. The UC Davis team plans to facilitate the creation of innovative and sustainable food products and ingredients, along with their production methods, storage, and delivery.
Over two years, the team will receive $1 million from the SHIP solicitation. This initiative aims to engage and train first-time NASA investigators, thereby strengthening the space biomedical research community.
Catherine Domingo, TRISH research operations manager said, “We are eager to see the inventive ideas Dr. Jamison-McClung’s team will bring into the space health community.” She added that they were excited about expanding the food-related space health community and providing future investigators with mentorship and tools necessary for addressing human space exploration's constraints and opportunities.
Dr. Asha S. Collins, chair of the SHIP advisory board said, “As we look to enable safer space exploration and habitation for humans, it is clear that food and nutrition are foundational.” She expressed excitement about how accelerating innovation in food science for space health could result in food-related innovations for people on Earth in remote areas and food deserts.
TRISH is an applied space health research catalyst empowered by the NASA Human Research Program to solve the challenges of human deep space exploration. The consortium, led by Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Space Medicine, leverages partnerships with Caltech and MIT.
