NASA Awards $1.25 Million to Teams Innovating Space Food Production

NASA Awards $1.25 Million to Teams Innovating Space Food Production
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 20, 2024

NASA has granted $1.25 million to three U.S. teams during the final round of the Deep Space Food Challenge, recognizing their pioneering technologies designed to produce safe, nutritious, and flavorful food for long-term space missions.

These innovative food production systems aim to support the sustainability of food supplies for future space exploration, including NASA's Artemis missions and potential journeys to Mars. Moreover, these advancements hold promise for improving food security on Earth, especially in regions affected by natural disasters or extreme conditions.

"The Deep Space Food Challenge could serve as the framework for providing astronauts with healthy and delicious food using sustainable mechanisms," said Angela Herblet, the challenge manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "The challenge has brought together innovative and driven individuals from around the world who are passionate about creating new solutions that support our agency's future Moon to Mars missions."

Launched in 2021, the challenge saw participation from over 300 teams across 32 countries. The competition, managed by NASA Centennial Challenges at NASA Marshall, marked a unique collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), which ran a parallel challenge.

In the third phase, which started in September 2023, four U.S. teams competed. The Methuselah Foundation, in collaboration with Ohio State University, facilitated this phase, which included a two-month period of testing and demonstrations on the university's campus in Columbus, Ohio. Each team was awarded $50,000 for this phase and tested their technologies under real conditions.

During this stage, the teams developed full-scale food production systems that were evaluated on criteria such as safety, sensory quality, taste, and yield. Ohio State students, serving as "Simunauts," conducted the tests and demonstrations over the eight weeks, providing data for the judging panel to assess.

The challenge wrapped up at the Deep Space Food Symposium, held at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on August 15 and 16. The event featured networking opportunities, expert panels, and demonstrations by the finalists, culminating in the announcement of the winners.

Interstellar Lab of Merritt Island, Florida, secured the $750,000 grand prize. Led by Barbara Belvisi, the team developed a self-sustaining system combining autonomous phytotrons and environment-controlled greenhouses to produce fresh vegetables, microgreens, and nutrient-rich insects.

Two other teams were awarded $250,000 each as runners-up: Nolux of Riverside, California, and SATED of Boulder, Colorado.

Nolux, led by Robert Jinkerson, presented a system that synthesizes plant and fungal-based foods using an artificial photosynthesis process, bypassing traditional biological methods.

SATED, a solo project by Jim Sears, offers a customizable food system capable of producing a range of meals, including pizza and peach cobbler, from long-lasting, fire-safe ingredients that can be grown in situ.

In addition to the U.S. teams, NASA recognized Solar Foods of Lappeenranta, Finland, for their gas fermentation system that produces protein from single-cell organisms.

In a parallel competition, CSA and Impact Canada awarded their grand prize to Ecoation, a Vancouver-based company specializing in greenhouse technologies.

"Congratulations to the winners and all the finalist teams for their many years dedicated to innovating solutions for the Deep Space Food Challenge," said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA's Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These food production technologies could change the future of food accessibility on other worlds and our home planet."

Celebrity chef and author Tyler Florence also attended the symposium, where he evaluated the finalists' food systems. Florence awarded the "Tyler Florence Award for Culinary Innovation" to SATED, recognizing the system's creative approach.

The Deep Space Food Challenge is a NASA Centennial Challenge, managed at NASA Marshall, with support from experts at Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Methuselah Foundation, in partnership with NASA, oversees the competition for U.S. and international teams.