Paper short abstract:

Interplanetary travel is driving a strong focus on innovative space food technologies and products. This paper aims to uncover how 'narratives of change' (Wittmayer et al., 2019) shape actions, strategies, and interventions, transforming food systems on Earth and beyond.

Paper long abstract:

Space food is often linked with the life support systems for crews during missions beyond Earth. In light of plans for interplanetary travel by numerous space agencies and commercial entities, there's a growing focus on developing innovative space food technologies and products to meet the demands of long-duration missions to destinations like the Moon, Mars, and beyond (e.g. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency's Deep Space Food Challenge).

Food and agriculture take center stage, serving as both a technical challenge—addressing the need to provide and produce food in microgravity environments—and a means to contribute to addressing Earthly issues such as climate change and food security. Initiatives like the IAEA/FAO’s Cosmic Crops underscore this focus on leveraging advancements in food production and technology transfer to benefit both space exploration and terrestrial sustainability efforts. Drawing from Inayatullah's five future images (2008) and adapting them to the context of space food, I delve into key official documents from international fora such as UNOOSA, materials from space agencies, New Space companies websites, and official communications from International Space Station (ISS)’s crews regarding food. The overarching objective is to uncover the primary 'narratives of change' (Wittmayer et al., 2019)—that is, the sets of ideas, concepts, metaphors, discourses, or storylines on food transformation in multi-planetary spaces. This analysis aims to reveal how these narratives inform and guide actions, strategies, and interventions for transforming food systems, both on Earth and beyond.