As NASA prepares to send astronauts into space like never before, the agency aims to upgrade vital fuel: food production. Providing future explorers with the technology to produce nutritious, tasty and satisfying meals on long space missions gives them the energy they need to discover great things that are unknown to them.


 

In collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA seeks to assist the public in developing innovative and sustainable food production technologies or systems that require minimal resources and produce less waste. Known as the Deep Space Food Challenge, the competition invites teams to design, design and demonstrate clear nutritional products or food production technologies that serve food.

Over time, the food loses its nutritional value. This means that for a multi-year mission to Mars, bringing pre-packaged food may not meet all the requirements to maintain astronaut health. In addition, food insecurity is an important, long-standing problem on earth in both urban and rural communities. Disasters that disrupt supply chains exacerbate food shortages. There may be applications in home and community-based local food production to develop compact and innovative sophisticated food solutions through programs such as the Deep Space Food Challenge, providing new solutions to humanitarian responses to floods and droughts and rapidly expanding after disasters.

"Innovative solutions are needed to provide astronauts with longer space travel limits," said Jim Reuters, associate administrator at NASA's space technology mission directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Pushing the boundaries of food technology will keep future explorers healthy and help deliver food to the people at home."

In October 2021, NASA provided a total of $ 450,000 to 18 teams for the Phase 1 Challenge, providing a total of $ 450,000 for their innovative food production technology to produce safe, acceptable, tasty, nutritious food products. Delicious and nutritious while minimizing the inputs of essential resources. . NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have jointly identified 10 international teams for their winning submissions. The Methuselah Foundation, NASA's Challenge Partner, has sponsored two $ 25,000 awards for international teams for their outstanding innovations. The Canadian Space Agency awarded CAD $ 30,000 each to their 10 winning teams.

NASA is now inviting both new and existing teams to enter Phase 2, for which teams must design and present their designs and produce food for judgment. Interested participants from the United States can compete in Phase 2 for a portion of the prize purse of up to $ 1 million.

"We look forward to taking the next step in this challenge and continuing to work with the Canadian Space Agency to find solutions worldwide," Reuters said.

About Competition Process:

The Deep Space Food Challenge asks competitors to design a food production technology, system or approach that can be integrated into a complete food system to sustain a staff of four on a three-year Deep Space mission. Everything needed to store, prepare and distribute food to staff should be considered, including production, processing, transportation, consumption and waste disposal. Proposed technologies such as plant growth systems, prepared food products and ready-made solutions can provide a wide variety of options for providing future staff with the daily nutrition they need.

In Phase 1, NASA's judges ruled that U.S. The verdict said the offerings would be categorized based on the food they wanted to produce. There are a variety of systems in designs ranging from complex to very simple. These groups proposed technologies to produce ready-to-eat food, such as bread, as well as processed dehydrated powders in food products. Other technologies include cultured plants and fungi or engineered food such as cultured meat cells, all of which can be grown or produced by personnel on deep space missions. Details of the winning submissions and teams can be found on the Challenge website.

All teams participating in Phase 1 of the Challenge must meet the registration requirements to enter Phase 2. New teams will be welcomed and encouraged to participate after providing the required registration information by February 28th. Interested participants from the United States can compete as part of a $ 1 million prize purse from NASA. The Canadian Space Agency is running a parallel competition with its own prize purse as well as a special application and judging process for participating Canadian teams. Qualifying teams from other countries may compete but do not qualify for monetary prizes.

The Deep Space Food Challenge is the NASA Centennial Challenge. Centennial Challenges is part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate's Gifts, Challenges and Crowdsourcing Program at the Agency's headquarters in Washington, DC and at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Subject matter experts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida support the competition. NASA, Methuselah Foundation, U.S. The partnership is hosting the International Deep Space Food Challenge competition.

(This information taken from the website feed)