NASA has announced eight winning teams and awarded $750,000 in prizes in the second phase of the agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge. The winning teams will move on to compete in the third and final phase of the challenge.
As NASA prepares to send astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before, the agency needs food systems that can fortify future crews in deep space for years at a time. The Deep Space Food Challenge calls on solvers from around the world to create technologies to help feed astronauts on future long-term space missions.
“These creative winning solutions come from teams made up of business, universities, and individual solvers, showcasing how NASA can benefit from everyone’s expertise to solve crucial challenges,” Amy Kaminski, program executive for Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said. “We’re excited to announce Phase 3 of the challenge to see where these teams can take their technologies next.”
Phase 2 tasked dozens of teams with building and demonstrating small-scale prototypes of technologies that use minimal resources and create little waste while producing safe, healthy, and appetizing foods for astronauts. A panel of judges selected eight winners to build and demonstrate full-scale food technologies over the next year in Phase 3.
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