WASHINGTON ,
Aug. 19,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has awarded a total of
$1.25 million to three U.S. teams in
the third and final round of the agency's Deep Space Food
Challenge. The teams delivered novel food production technologies
that could provide long-duration human space exploration missions
with safe, nutritious, and tasty food.
The competitors' technologies address NASA's need for
sustainable food systems for long-duration habitation in space,
including future Artemis missions and eventual journeys to Mars.
Advanced food systems also could benefit life on Earth and inspire
food production in parts of the world that are prone to natural
disasters, food insecurity, and extreme environments.
"The Deep Space Food Challenge could serve as the framework for
providing astronauts with healthy and delicious food using
sustainable mechanisms," said Angela Herblet, challenge manager for
the Deep Space Food Challenge 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."
Since the challenge's launch in 2021, more than 300 teams from
32 countries have participated by submitting innovative food system
designs. The competition, conceived and managed by NASA Centennial
Challenges at NASA Marshall, is a first-of-its-kind coordinated
effort between NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), which ran its
own challenge in parallel.
Four American teams competed in Phase 3, which began in
September 2023. The Methuselah
Foundation partnered with Ohio State
University to facilitate the final phase of the challenge,
which included a two-month testing and demonstration period held on
the university's campus in Columbus,
Ohio. Each U.S. team in Phase 3 was awarded $50,000 and took their technology to Columbus for testing.
Throughout this phase, the teams constructed full-scale food
production systems that were required to pass developmental
milestones like safety, sensory testing, palatability, and
harvesting volumes. Each team worked with four "Simunauts," a crew
of Ohio State students who managed the
testing and demonstrations for Phase 3 over the eight-week period.
The data gathered from testing was delivered to a judging panel to
determine the winner.
The challenge concluded at the Deep Space Food Symposium, a
two-day networking and learning summit at the Nationwide and Ohio
Farm Bureau 4-H Center on Aug. 15 and
16. Throughout the event, attendees met the Phase 3 finalists,
witnessed demonstrations of the food production technologies, and
attended panels featuring experts from NASA, government, industry,
and academia. The winners of the challenge were announced at an
awards ceremony at the end of the symposium.
The U.S. winner and recipient of the $750,000 grand prize is Interstellar Lab of
Merritt Island, Florida. Led by
Barbara Belvisi, the small business
combines several autonomous phytotrons and environment-controlled
greenhouses to support a growth system involving a self-sustaining
food production mechanism that generates fresh vegetables,
microgreens, and insects necessary for micronutrients.
Two runners-up each earned $250,000 for their food systems' successes: Nolux
of Riverside, California, and
SATED of Boulder, Colorado.
Nolux, a university team led by Robert
Jinkerson, constructed an artificial photosynthetic system
that can create plant and fungal-based foods without the operation
of biological photosynthesis.
Standing for Safe Appliance, Tidy, Efficient & Delicious,
SATED is a one-man team of Jim
Sears, who developed a variety of customizable food, from
pizza to peach cobbler. The product is fire-safe and was developed
by long-shelf-life and in-situ grown ingredients.
NASA also selected and recognized one international team
as a Phase 3 winner: Solar Foods of Lappeenranta,
Finland, developed a food
production system through gas fermentation that relies on
single-cell protein production.
In April 2024, CSA and Impact
Canada awarded the grand prize winner of its parallel challenge to
Ecoation, a Vancouver-based small
business specializing in greenhouses.
"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."
Also present at the symposium was celebrity chef and cookbook
author Tyler Florence. After
spending time with each finalist team and getting acquainted with
their food systems, Florence selected one team to receive the
"Tyler Florence Award for Culinary
Innovation." Team SATED of Boulder, Colorado, received the honor for
their system that impressed Florence due to its innovative approach
to the challenge.
The Deep Space Food Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenge,
is a coordinated effort between NASA and CSA. Subject
matter experts at Johnson Space Center in Houston and Kennedy Space Center in
Florida, supported the
competition. NASA's Centennial Challenges are part of
the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and managed
at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Methuselah
Foundation, in partnership with NASA, oversees the United States and international
competitors.
To learn more about the Deep Space Food Challenge,
visit:
nasa.gov/spacefoodchallenge
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SOURCE NASA