NASA awards “space chefs” for food-making innovations

To ensure food security on long space missions, NASA has awarded over $1 million for creating innovative space food technologies, including greenhouses, gas fermentation, and fungal-based foods.

Astronauts need nutritious and tasty food to stay healthy in space. That's why NASA is seeking innovations in food technologies to create sustainable systems that use minimal resources, produce little waste, and provide safe, nutritious, and delicious food for extended missions. This is crucial for the upcoming Artemis missions and future journeys to Mars.

In collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), NASA launched the Deep Space Food Challenge in 2021 to develop new food production technologies. Since then, over 300 teams from 32 countries have participated and submitted food system designs.

The final stage of the challenge, which started in 2023, included a two-month testing and demonstration period at the university’s campus in Columbus, Ohio. During this phase, teams built full-scale food production systems that had to meet key milestones, such as safety, taste tests, and harvesting volumes. A judging panel then reviewed the test data to select the winner.

The $750,000 grand prize for the US winner went to Interstellar Lab of Merritt Island, Florida. This small business, led by Barbara Belvisi, uses autonomous phytotrons and environment-controlled greenhouses to create a self-sustaining food production system, growing fresh vegetables, microgreens, and insects for essential nutrients.

Two runners-up each received $250,000 for their successful food systems. Nolux, based in Riverside, California, and led by Robert Jinkerson, developed an artificial photosynthetic system to produce plant and fungal-based foods without traditional photosynthesis.

SATED, a one-man team from Boulder, Colorado, led by Jim Sears, created customizable foods, from pizza to peach cobbler, using fire-safe, long-shelf-life, and in-situ grown ingredients.

NASA also recognized one international team – Solar Foods from Lappeenranta, Finland, for its gas fermentation-based food production system that produces single-cell proteins.

Advanced food systems could play a crucial role in astronauts' daily lives and improve life on Earth by enhancing food production in areas hit by natural disasters, food insecurity, and extreme conditions.

“These food production technologies could change the future of food accessibility on other worlds and our home planet,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing at NASA Headquarters in Washington.