Interested participants from the United States can compete in Phase 2 for part of a prize purse up to $1 million. NASA now invites both new and existing teams to enter Phase 2, which will require teams to build and demonstrate prototypes of their designs and produce food for judging. The Canadian Space Agency awarded 10 teams $30,000 CAD each to their winning teams. NASA’s supporting partner of the challenge, the Methuselah Foundation, sponsored two $25,000 awards to international teams for their outstanding innovation. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency jointly recognized 10 international teams for their winning submissions. In October 2021, Phase 1 of the challenge culminated as NASA awarded 18 teams a total of $450,000 for their concepts for innovative food production technology that produces safe, acceptable, palatable, nutritious food products that are stable and high quality, while minimizing necessary resource inputs. “Pushing the boundaries of food technology will keep future explorers healthy and could even help feed people here at home.” “Feeding astronauts over long periods within the constraints of space travel will require innovative solutions,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. Developing compact and innovative advanced food system solutions through initiatives such as the Deep Space Food Challenge could have applications in home and community-based local food production, providing new solutions for humanitarian responses to floods and droughts, and new technologies for rapid deployment following disasters. Disasters that disrupt supply chains further aggravate food shortages. Additionally, food insecurity is a significant, chronic problem on Earth in both urban and rural communities. That means for a multi-year mission to Mars, bringing along pre-packaged food will not meet all the needs for maintaining astronaut health. Over time, food loses its nutritional value. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have coordinated to open Phase 2 of the Deep Space Food Challenge, targeted at developing novel food production system technologies for long-duration deep space missions.
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