Join the Deep Space Food Challenge to assist bring ingenious food production innovations to area and here on Earth.
As NASA prepares to send out astronauts even more into the universes than ever in the past, the firm intends to update production of a vital fuel source: food. Giving future explorers the innovation to produce healthy, yummy, and pleasing meals on long-duration area objectives will provide the energy needed to discover the terrific unidentified.
In coordination with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA is contacting the general public to assist establish ingenious and sustainable food production innovations or systems that need very little resources and produce very little waste. Dubbed the Deep Space Food Challenge, the competitors contacts groups to create, develop, and show models of food production innovations that offer concrete dietary items– or food.
Over time, food loses its dietary worth. That implies for a multi-year objective to Mars, bringing along pre-packaged food will not satisfy all the requirements for keeping astronaut health. Additionally, food insecurity is a considerable, persistent issue on Earth in both metropolitan and rural neighborhoods. Disasters that interrupt supply chains even more worsen food scarcities. Developing compact and ingenious sophisticated food system services through efforts such as the Deep Space Food Challenge might have applications in house and community-based regional food production, supplying brand-new services for humanitarian actions to floods and dry spells, and brand-new innovations for quick implementation following catastrophes.
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have actually collaborated to open Phase 2 of the Deep Space Food Challenge, targeted at establishing unique food production system innovations for long-duration deep area objectives. Credit: NASA
“Feeding astronauts over long periods within the constraints of space travel will require innovative solutions,” stated Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at the firm’s head office inWashington “Pushing the boundaries of food technology will keep future explorers healthy and could even help feed people here at home.”
In October 2021, Phase 1 of the difficulty culminated as NASA granted 18 groups an overall of $450,000 for their principles for ingenious food production innovation that produces safe, appropriate, tasty, healthy foodstuff that are steady and high quality, while reducing essential resource inputs. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency collectively acknowledged 10 worldwide groups for their winning submissions. NASA’s supporting partner of the difficulty, the Methuselah Foundation, sponsored 2 $25,000 awards to worldwide groups for their exceptional development. The Canadian Space Agency granted 10 groups $30,000 CAD each to their winning groups.
NASA now welcomes both brand-new and existing groups to get in Phase 2, which will need groups to develop and show models of their styles and produce food for evaluating. Interested individuals from the United States can contend in Phase 2 for part of a reward handbag approximately $1 million.
“We are excited to continue collaborating with the Canadian Space Agency to conduct the next phase of this challenge and identify solutions from across the globe,” stated Reuter.
The Competition
The Deep Space Food Challenge asks rivals to develop a food production innovation, system, or method that might possibly be incorporated into a total food system to sustain a team of 4 on a three-year deep area objective. Everything required to save, prepare and provide food to the team, consisting of production, processing, transportation, intake, and disposal of waste ought to be thought about. Proposed innovations such as plant development systems, produced foodstuff, and ready-to-eat services integrated might offer the future teams with a range of choices that would offer the required everyday nutrition.
In Phase 1, NASA’s judges organized U.S. submissions based upon the food they visualized producing. Among the styles were a range of systems that varied from complex to really easy. Teams proposed innovations to produce ready-to-eat foods such as bread, along with dehydrated powders that might be processed into foodstuff. Other innovations included cultivated plants and fungis or crafted food such as cultured meat cells, all of which might be grown or produced by the team on deep area objectives. Details about the winning submissions and groups can be discovered on the difficulty site.
All groups associated with Phase 1 of the difficulty satisfied the registration requirements to get in Phase 2. New groups are invited and extremely motivated to get involved after supplying the needed registration info, due by February28 Interested individuals from the United States can contend for part of a reward handbag of approximately $1 million from NASA. The Canadian Space Agency is hosting a parallel competitors with a different application and evaluating procedure, along with its own reward handbag, for taking part Canadian groups. Qualifying groups from other nations might contend however will not be qualified for financial rewards.
The Deep Space Food Challenge is a NASA CentennialChallenge Centennial Challenges become part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at the firm’s Headquarters in Washington and are handled at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,Alabama Subject matter specialists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida support the competitors. NASA, in collaboration with the Methuselah Foundation, handles the U.S. and worldwide Deep Space Food Challenge competitors.
