MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Biomedical Problems suggest developing a special diet that might help protect the space crew from radiation during long interplanetary voyages, as follows from a memorandum drafted for the international symposium Humans in Space, being held in Moscow on Monday.

"For ensuring the crew’s safety when the spacecraft will be flying through radiation belts it is essential to develop a special diet consisting of foods with radiation protection properties, which will considerably enhance the human body’s resistance to ionizing radiation and prevent functional changes that occur during long space flights," the memo says.

Scientists say that normal nutrition of space crews during deep space flights requires creating a new generation equipment for the nourishment system to be installed on board interplanetary crewed spacecraft and also starting the production of a new family of durable foods (with expiration deadlines of more than three years) and also foods possessing protection properties.

The memorandum says that foods for crews during interplanetary flights must take the minimum space and have the minimum mass. Also, the foods are to be edible in hot and cold form. Cooking time must be minimized.