ISS

The researchers are doing the experiment because it costs so much to send astronauts food on the ISS - up to £20,000 per astronaut per day, they estimate.

Research on the ISS has shown that the biochemistry of astronauts' bodies changes during long duration space missions: their hormone balance and iron levels alter, and they we lose calcium from their bones.

Before their departure from the ISS, the crew handed command of the spaceship to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi.

They flew to the ISS in June 2024 - but technical issues with the spacecraft they used to get to the space station meant they were only able to return to Earth on 18 March this year.

And that is not happening in the microgravity on board the ISS.