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During space missions, such as the prospective Mars mission, crew labor time is a strictly limited resource. The diet for such a mission (based on crops grown in a bioregenerative life support system) will require astronauts to prepare their meals essentially from raw ingredients. Time spent on food processing and preparation is time lost for other purposes. Recipe design and diet planning for a space mission should therefore incorporate the time required to prepare the recipes as a critical factor. In this study, videotape analysis of an experienced chef was used to develop a database of recipe preparation time. The measurements were highly consistent among different measurement teams. Data analysis revealed a wide variation between the active times of different recipes, underscoring the need for optimization of diet planning. Potential uses of the database developed in this study are discussed and illustrated in this work.

This study tested the effects of active noise reduction (ANR) technology upon speech intelligibility under conditions of simulated space shuttle mid-deck noise. Thirty-two participants (16 male, 16 female) were tested with and without ANR headsets in a repeated measures design. A pre-recording of eight presenter voices (4 male, 4 female) reciting test words from the Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) was played in the presence of space shuttle mid-deck noise for each condition. There were significant differences in speech intelligibility with the use of ANR headsets, and between speech presenters. The scores obtained with the use of the ANR headsets were lower (less intelligible) than scores gained without the headsets. Gender and order effects were not observed. It is concluded that the type of ANR headset tested in this study will not aid speech intelligibility in the shuttle mid-deck noise environment.