NASA Unveils Winning Designs for Mars Space Food Systems Challenge
NASA awarded $650,000 to five teams in the Mars to Table Challenge for innovative space food systems, aiming to sustain astronauts on long-duration missions to Mars.
NASA announced the winners of the Deep Space Food Challenge’s Mars to Table competition, awarding a total of $650,000 to five teams. The top prize of $300,000 went to Chinyere Ukeje of Philadelphia for the Adaptive Nourishment Infrastructure (ANI) concept, a modular food system combining controlled-environment agriculture, fermentation, and fungi cultivation. The challenge sought integrated solutions to provide safe, nutritious meals for astronauts on long-duration missions, moving beyond individual technology components to full food-production systems.
The Mars to Table Challenge, launched in January 2026, built on NASA’s earlier Deep Space Food Challenge (2021–2014) by focusing on complete food systems rather than prototypes. Teams were tasked with designing systems capable of feeding a 15-person crew for 500 Martian sols (513 Earth days) with minimal crew time and maintenance. Judges evaluated 113 submissions from 33 countries and 28 U.S. states, selecting five winners. NASA emphasized the need for such systems due to the impracticality of pre-packaged meals for Mars missions, which require at least nine months of travel time.
First-place winner Chinyere Ukeje’s ANI system aims to produce 50% of food away from Earth using controlled-environment agriculture, fermentation, fungi cultivation, and closed-loop nutrient recycling. The system is designed to handle power, water, or equipment shortages while cooking fresh meals daily. Second-place winner Cislune of Rosemead, Calif., received $200,000 for its Fresh, Ferment, Reserve system, which grows crops, processes them into familiar foods, and maintains a protected Earth-loaded reserve for contingencies.
NASA’s Mars to Table Challenge is managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, with support from multiple divisions including Biological and Physical Sciences, Human Research, and Planetary Science. The challenge builds on Centennial Challenges’ 20-year history of engaging the public to solve complex problems, with past initiatives advancing robotics, manufacturing, and biology. Subject matter experts from NASA Johnson and Kennedy also contributed to the competition’s administration.