(AGENPARL) – ven 02 agosto 2024 NASA Invites Media, Public to Attend Deep Space Food Challenge Finale
Aug 02, 2024
MEDIA ADVISORY M24-106
[An artists’ rendering of the Moon and Mars, both halfway lit, above the Earth’s horizon against open space, sprinkled with small stars.]
NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge directly supports the agency’s Moon to Mars initiatives.
Credit: NASA
NASA invites the media and public to explore the nexus of space and food innovation at the agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge symposium and winners’ announcement at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Aug. 16.
In 2019, NASA and the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) started the Deep Space Food Challenge, a multi-year international effort to develop sustainable food systems for long-duration habitation in space including the Moon and Mars. Since Phase 1 of the challenge opened in 2021, more than 300 teams from 32 countries have developed innovative food system designs. On Aug. 16, NASA will announce the final Phase 3 winners and recognize the shared global effort.
NASA will award up to $1.5 million during the awards ceremony, totaling the prize purse for this three-year competition at $3 million. International teams also will be recognized for their achievements.
“Advanced food systems also benefit life on Earth,” said Kim Krome-Sieja, acting program manager of NASA Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Solutions from this challenge could enable new avenues for food production around the world, especially in extreme environments, resource-scarce regions, and in locations where disasters disrupt critical infrastructure.”
“Our Phase 2 winners’ event in Brooklyn, New York, was an incredible display of innovation, partnership, and collaboration across NASA, industry, and academia,” said Angela Herblet, challenge manager of the Deep Space Food Challenge and program analyst of NASA Centennial Challenges at NASA Marshall. “I’m looking forward to celebrating these brilliant Phase 3 finalists and underscoring the giant leaps they’ve made toward creating sustainable, regenerative food production systems.”
The event will feature a meet and greet with the Phase 3 finalists, symposium panels, and live demonstrations of the finalists’ food production technologies. Attendees also will have the opportunity to meet the crew of Ohio State students called “Simunauts,” who managed operations of the technologies during the eight-week demonstration and testing period.
“The Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing team is excited to welcome media, stakeholders, and the public to our event in Columbus,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “These finalists have worked diligently for three years to develop their diverse, innovative food systems, and I’m excited to see how their technologies may impact NASA’s future deep space missions.”
As a?NASA Centennial Challenge, the Deep Space Food Challenge is a coordinated effort between?NASA?and CSA for the benefit of all. Subject matter experts at?NASA’s Johnson Space Center?in Houston and?NASA’s Kennedy Space Center?in Florida support the competition. NASA’s Centennial Challenges are part of the?Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program?within NASA’s?Space Technology Mission Directorate?and managed at?NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center?in Huntsville, Alabama.?The Methuselah Foundation, in partnership with NASA, oversees the competitors.
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