NASA is offering foodies and boffins $500,000 to find ways for astronauts to make their own dinners on the Moon, and beyond.
NASA has teamed up with the Canadian Space Agency to launch a competition to challenge foodies and engineers to design new food production systems that will feed future astronauts exploring the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Far away from the lush lands of terra firma where fresh fruit, vegetables, and animals for meat are grown, the men and women on the International Space Station survive on sometimes unpalatable freeze-dried packets typically delivered by cargo spacecraft. Space may be fun and all, but the food there sucks.
Space agencies hoping to explore further out into the Solar System realize it’ll be difficult to routinely deliver food items across the void, and are looking for new sustainable ways to provide nutrition for astronauts while they're living in a lunar base or traveling to Mars.
The Deep Space Food Challenge is looking for ways to grow, store, and cook food, wherever the spacefarers may be, that will provide enough nutrition to feed a crew of four on, say, a three-year round trip mission. If you want to enter the challenge, click here.
Here’s a quick video describing the Deep Space Food Challenge: