NASA announced the results of its Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table on Thursday. The competition asked teams to design complete food systems that could keep astronauts fed with safe, nutritious meals during long missions far from Earth, such as a future crewed trip to Mars.
The top award of $300,000 went to Chinyere Ukeje of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for a concept called Adaptive Nourishment Infrastructure (ANI). According to NASA, the challenge looked for integrated approaches that cover the whole food chain, not just individual technologies.
The competition is part of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, run by the Space Technology Mission Directorate, which offers prize money to outside innovators to help solve technical problems facing future exploration.
