NASA announced the results of the Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table, which sought to design integrated systems for producing food on Mars missions rather than developing separate food components. The agency selected five winners from among 113 submissions submitted by teams from 33 countries and 28 U.S. states, with total prizes amounting to $650,000.
A system that produces half of its food away from Earth
Chinyere Ukeje of Philadelphia received the $300,000 first prize for the Adaptive Nourishment Infrastructure (ANI) concept. The design proposes a modular food system combining controlled-environment agriculture, fermentation, and fungal cultivation, as well as nutrient recycling through closed-loop bioreactors, while relying on a limited amount of supplies brought from Earth.
ANI aims to produce 50% of its food away from Earth and prepare fresh meals daily, with a design that allows operations to continue in the event of shortages of energy, water, or equipment, or a shortage of crew time. The name references Ani, the goddess of harvest and fertility in Nigerian heritage.
Designs for dealing with fluctuations and limited resources
The $200,000 second prize went to Cislune of Rosemead, California, for the Fresh, Ferment, Reserve system. The proposal relies on growing selected crops and transforming part of the production into familiar foods inside instrumented growing chambers, in addition to a protected reserve loaded from Earth to address biological variability, service reductions, or the rejection of certain production batches.
The other prizes were $50,000 for each winner: Ohā Kanu of Hilo, Hawaii, received the Applied Frameworks award for a system inspired by the concept of Ahupuaʻa; Orbital Health Systems of Evansville, Indiana, won the Mission Simulation award for New Lunar Settlers Cookbook (Mars Edition); while Autonomic Resilience Collective of Bentonville, Arkansas, received the Human-Centered Design award for the AEGIS Mars system. NASA also recognized Team Astrofood of Elsene, Belgium, as the international winner for the FRESH system.
Why does this challenge matter?
Astronaut meals currently rely heavily on cooked and packaged food sent to the International Space Station by NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory. But a one-way journey to Mars will take at least nine months, making the transportation of complete nutritional requirements an ongoing challenge because of shelf life and the required mass.
The competition tested a scenario involving a crew of 15 astronauts working on the surface of Mars for 500 Martian days, or approximately 513 Earth days. Each team was required to submit a system blueprint, a meal plan, an outline of operating procedures, and a video explaining the concept. The results therefore represent initial design platforms for NASA to benefit from, not an announcement of a system ready for use on a crewed mission.
NASA Marshall managed the challenge under the Centennial Challenges program, with support from specialized NASA divisions and teams, in addition to the Methuselah Foundation and Floor23 Digital. The feasibility of these concepts remains tied to their actual ability to operate in the Martian environment, ensure food safety, and reduce crew and resource consumption—areas that the announcement did not establish as fully operational technologies.