Food, nutrition and health in spaceIn progress

Battalion 4

Ten systematic reviews across the sub-domains of astronaut food, nutrition and health. Phase A is underway. No defense may be seated yet, and the reason is recorded rather than hidden. The figures on this page are Phase A progress counts and they move as the reviews continue.

No defense may be seated yet

No Battalion 4 defense may be seated until the collegium-astro-nutrition brain exists. The current Domain Examiner anchors, which are AMOS, the NASA decadal surveys and Acta Astronautica, are not retrieval-grounded in life sciences or nutrition, so the board is not presently competent to examine this domain. This is a deliberate, disclosed gate rather than an oversight.

Structure

10 sub-domains times 3 facets gives 30 provisional candidates. The facets are mechanism, countermeasure efficacy, system integration and economics. Every one of the 30 remains provisional until Phase A validates it against the consolidated gap register.

Key	Sub-domain	Screened	Analysable	Human tier
NUT	Nutrition	5,548	254	186
CRP	Crops and controlled-environment production	3,758	222	4
ECL	ECLSS and closed-loop life support	5,111	150	12
GUT	Gut microbiome	2,434	75	30
NEU	Neurocognitive	5,382	551	380
OCU	Ocular and SANS	3,375	383	253
OXS	Oxidative stress	1,453	199	47
FSY	Food systems	3,407	151	48
REG	Regulatory	5,758	31	0
ECO	Economics	2,704	21	0
	Total	38,930	2,037	960

Human tier counts records at T1 or T3, which is to say a human subject in actual spaceflight or in a ground analog. 574 full texts have been retrieved and read to date.

The evidence-tier control

Every extracted finding in this battalion carries a mandatory six-level evidence tier, and a synthesis rule bars pooling across tiers without justification and sensitivity analysis. This control exists because tier confusion, citing simulated-microgravity or rodent findings as spaceflight results, is the dominant failure mode in this literature.

Actual spaceflight, human subject

Actual spaceflight, non-human subject

Ground analog, human subject

Simulated micro or partial gravity

Terrestrial only

Modelled

The tier is assigned by reading a study's methods, never by matching a search string. A rodent study flown on the International Space Station and a rodent study on a clinostat in a terrestrial laboratory are different tiers, and treating them as interchangeable is the error this control exists to prevent.

Phase A

Phase A is ten graduate-grade systematic reviews conducted under PRISMA 2020, one per sub-domain. Each emits a registered protocol, a search log, an identification log with per-record disposition, a flow diagram, an extraction table, a risk-of-bias assessment, a synthesis and a gap register. Phase A also mints the domain brain that Phase B requires.

Phase B validates the 30 provisional topics against the consolidated gap register, runs the standard intake protocol, ratifies, charters, and then runs the standard pipeline. It cannot begin while the precondition above remains open.

How to read a claim on this site

Real finding: Drawn from real published literature screened and appraised under a stated protocol, or from real verified records. Citable as a finding about the state of the evidence.
Methodology demonstration: The chartered design was executed on proxy data because the real data was not obtainable by this programme. It establishes that the design is constructible, executable and informative, and that commissioning the real study is warranted. It establishes nothing about real space systems.
Charter intent: A stated research intention that has not yet produced a defended result. Read it as a plan, not as an outcome.