A chef in residence at the University of Kentucky, is working with humanity in deep space, a project exploring the challenges of space travel, including food preparation.

Chef Bob Perry is hoping his research and knowledge helps to improve meals for astronauts on missions, specifically a nearly three year journey to Mars.

All societies coalesced around the table.

Even the earliest archeological digs.

They always found food.

They found a table.

People sat together, and that's something the astronauts would say was very important to them.

Mealtime is the high is the highlight of their day when they get to sit together just like you and your family.

At the end of the day, you all sit and talk about what happened that day.

Things that you're going to do the next day and enjoy a meal together.

That's very important for the astronauts.

I'm working with humanity in deep space to look at it.

Feeding the astronauts on Mars a mission which would be almost three years.

Through the lens of neuro gastronomy.

So we're looking not just at the food, but everything about eating the surroundings, the temperature, the color, dividing, the sound.

Anything that we can do to enhance the astronauts mealtime is a big plus.

Narrow gastronomy.

It's the study of taste, and you have to separate taste from flavor.

So the way to think about it is all foods have flavors.

And we can quantify those flavors.

We know what makes things taste like they are.

We can, you know, analyze the chemical makeup, all the different things.

Taste, however, is created in the brain.

So you and I eat exactly the same thing and we can measure exactly what we're eating.

You love it.

I hate it.

That's in our minds.

It's not in the city, but we take that aspect very strongly and apply it to eating in space.

It really gets interesting because you're you're looking at an enclosed space.

The astronauts sense of taste is altered because you get fluid in your head.

Plus, they say it smells really bad.

So all of this affects the astronauts eating and of course, they have to eat to maintain health.

You have to have to consume the right foods to keep your body functioning.

And we know, for instance, that certain foods have big effects on the liver.

Certain foods have effects on the brain.

So we look at fat, too, and try to design menus for space.

The difference in what we're looking at for the Mars mission is nobody's ever been in space longer than three weeks without being resupplied.

So what they have been eating now will not necessarily work on longer supports to Mars.

If you it's a it's a long time.

And without being resupplied, you have to take everything off for a shot.

So that is a huge problem in and of itself.

But generally, the astronauts, now that we've got international astronauts, you look back at what they were eating and people like to bring food from their own culture.

Again, it's a very cultural thing to be the Russians like certain foods that Indian, certain food, the Japanese, they want certain foods.

Everybody wants their own foods.

It's a sense of home.

So again, it's thinking about how how much taste and nutrition can we really pack into a smaller package as possible.

So we get the biggest bang when they eat it?

Chef Berry says it's their job to make sure astronauts have the healthiest food possible, but they also enjoy it.