Biology 1 (2015 8) 18-31 ~ ~ ~ УДК 57.017 The Giant African Land Snail Achatina fulica (Bowdich, 1720) as a Candidate Species for Bioregenerative Life Support Systems Nicolay S. Manukovsky, Vladimir S. Kovalev*, Alexander A. Tikhomirov, Galina S. Kalacheva and Anzhelika A. Kolmakova Institute of Biophysics SB RAS 50/50 Akademgorodok, Krasnoyarsk, 660036, Russia Received 12.09.2014, received in revised form 22.10.2014, accepted 26.01.2015 The capability of snails to consume and convert inedible plant biomass and kitchen waste was tested. <...> Inedible biomass of wheat and cabbage and also potato peels as a food were worse than lettuce, which is an ordinary feed for snails. <...> In order to describe the growth of Achatina fulica its logistic function was fi tted to the experimental data. <...> Mass ratio shell/whole body in terms of wet weight was 18-21 % irrespective of snail age. <...> Snail meat was characterized by the low content of fat – 6.0 % DM. <...> Essential fatty acids constituted 16.6 % of the total sum. <...> Linolenic and linoleic acids dominated in a pool of essential fatty acids. <...> The scores of essential amino acids, except sulfuric amino acids, exceeded 100 %. <...> To estimate nutritious properties of snail meat, a computer program was developed. <...> It was observed that the maximum intake of snail meat can reach 497 g/crewmember day. <...> Addition of snail meat to a basic diet enabled increasing food independence of bioregenerative life support system to 97 %. <...> Keywords: snail, (BLSS). feed, growth, chemical composition, diet, bioregenerative life support system © Siberian Federal University. <...> All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: kovalev49@mail.ru # 18 # Nicolay S. Manukovsky, Vladimir S. Kovalev… The Giant African Land Snail Achatina fulica (Bowdich, 1720)… Гигантская африканская наземная улитка Achatina fulica (Bowdich, 1720) как вид-кандидат для биорегенеративной системы жизнеобеспечения Н. <...> Introduction It is known, that two-thirds of protein in a space diet should have an animal origin (Cooper et al., 2011). <...> At least a part of animal food <...>