NASA is all set to launch its first manned mission to Mars soon in near future, but still NASA finds the need to do more research into what astronauts should eat in order to survive their long trip to Mars that will take approximately three years.

Till now, many missions have been taken to space and long stays were experienced in the international space station. However, the food astronauts were given was not nutritious and palatable, which as a result could give possibility of weak immune system disease and even death. “One of our goals is to optimize nutrition to mitigate the negative effects of spaceflight, such as bone and muscle loss, radiation damage, changes in immune function, and changes to other physiological systems”, said Sara Zwart, a food scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

The negative impact of spaceflight caused by nutritional deficiency could hamper the researcher’s ability to explore the universe, causing failure to the mission.

The average distance between earth and mars is roughly 225 million kilometers that would involve exposure to very different radiation levels and other factors unlike experienced in the International Space Station (ISS).

According to Zwart, the long-term impact on human body during long stay in space is not fully understood yet. To insure good health of the astronauts taking long spaceflights to Mars, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reviewed NASA reports on spaceflight-imposed health risks. They found though NASA has made several advancements in the area, there are uncertainties as regard to the impact of the best nutritional guidelines for long-term space missions.

Though the space agency was so far able to device ways that could keep food safe for very long time, the food lacked nutritional value and astronauts at most of the part rely on supplements. The scientists now don’t want their astronauts to depend hugely on supplements, so they must design technique to prevent food from losing its nutritional value. The intake of vitamin D through supplements can’t find other substitute; hence one must rely on supplements due to lack of sunlight in space.