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their extreme lightness. More recent are the experiences of building inflatable greenhouses for the production ofvegetables in view of long permanence in the Space. The research in this field is already to an advanced stageand it has shown as a human spatial mission on Mars during which the astronauts could autonomously supplywith a lot of raw vegetables without depending on restocking of foods from Earth. However, many vegetablescannot be consumed as raw material because of their lower digestibility, the presence of anti-nutritive factors, atoo tough consistence and also the sometimes unacceptable taste. That’s way it will be necessary to processthem.Our research will aim to develop small pilot plants whit the peculiar characteristics of flexibility, lightness simplicityof use and carriage, whose driving force is represented by compressed air and able to process raw vegetables.Contemporarily we will study new formulation and technology exportable into the space (i.e. the utilizationof humectants that can reduce water activity of foods or the use of microwave for pasteurize, dry or cook rawfoods).The possibility to process and stabilize in situ the vegetables grown in green houses will also give psychologicalsupport to astronauts obliged to very long permanency in the space: they could prepare foods with traditionaltaste prepared with innovative technologies without give up their safety. In addition, we think that the pursuit ofthese goals in view of extraterrestrial life will bring innovative effects on “earth technologies” such as high qualityfoods and the enhancement of those geographical areas where vegetables and fruits are grown.2. Derossi A., Severini C. 2006. Food processing in the Space. What improvement for the Earth.Relazione presentata al Convegno Internazionale Agrospace. Territory and Research,Sperlonga (LT) il 25-26 maggio 2006. (www.agrospaceconference.com)In the past, during Space missions, food are supplied from the Earth. For long duration Space missions such asMars missions it will be basic to gain new knowledge to allow the reduction of weight, volume and costs of materialtransport. So, we proposed the possibility to process in situ vegetables obtained in life support systems byusing inflatable technology. An inflatable masher, inflatable blancher and inflatable cutter were proposed asmodular plants that allow to reach microbial safety of several food products such as tomato sauce and artichokecreams. Moreover, the study of inflatable food systems will allow to apply this technology on the Earth. For instance,the use of inflatable tanks, in comparison with traditional ones which take up to much space in train station,airport or port of loading area, could allow to reduce cost of food transport. Also, the possibility to carry outthe first industrial treatments such as blanching in hot water or a fast cooling are could allow a reduction of someimportant degradation reactions.3. Derossi A., Severini C. 2008. Design of an inflatable system for food stabilization. Relazionepresentata al Convegno Internazionale Agrospace Dual use technologies, Sperlonga (LT) il22-23 maggio 2008. (www.agrospaceconference.com)In the past, the development of food for space missions was pointed out on the possibility to increase the numberof ready to eat menus and to assure the necessary nutritional values for crew members. First, during Gemini mission(1965 – 1966) and Apollo program (1968 – 1972), astronauts ate from tube a mixture of protein, fat, sugarwith high calorie but with questionable organoleptic qualities. Only after several years, with Space Shuttle andInternational Space Station (ISS) missions (1981 – present) food were used to prepare several ready to eat menus.In all these cases, during these missions, food were re-supply from the earth. From 14 January 2004, USAput a plan two new aims: a) to return on Moon before 2020 and b) to prepare a human exploration of Mars. Withthis new vision, the old approach of “food supply” from Earth need a complete re-design, new technologies andnew packaging. A Mars mission is expected about 2.5 – 3 years long and the food supply is unfeasible. So, it isimportant to plan life support systems to crop vegetables on Mars surface and to process raw materials with theaim to increase shelf life and to reduce degradation reactions. The plants need to have some peculiar characteristicssuch as: easy to transfer, easy to sanitize and need to be multipurpose systems.In this way the possibility to use “inflatable technology” as the way to built a multipurpose, low weight, low volume,easy to transfer plant to process vegetable food was designed and discussed.SISTAL - SOCIETA’ ITALIANA DI SCIENZE E TECNOLOGIE ALIMENTARIDipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agroalimentari, Università degli Studi della TusciaVia San Camillo de Lellis, 01100 ViterboTel.: 0761- 35 74 94/7 , Fax: 0761- 35 74 98, e-mail: mmoresi@unitus.it160