NASA Will Pay You To Innovate Food System Ideas For Astronauts

It has recently come to light that NASA is offering a $5,00,000 cash prize (Rs 3.6 crore) to people who can come up with innovative food production technologies for space and here on Earth. NASA in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency has invited people to create game-changing food technologies or systems that require minimal inputs and maximize nutritious food outputs for long-duration space missions.

“We are excited to coordinate with the Canadian Space Agency to conduct this challenge and push the boundaries of food technology production that will help keep our future explorers healthy, knowing that some of these technologies could also have great terrestrial applications,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

Depending on the kind of technologies the participating teams present, the Canadian Space Agency will host a parallel competition with a separate application and judging process, as well as its own prize purse, for participating Canadian teams. Qualifying teams from other countries can also compete but they will not be eligible for the monetary prizes.

“We need to provide food that meets the caloric and nutritional requirements for our astronauts, but we want to go a step further. The variety, acceptability, and nutritional content of the food system has the potential to go beyond just sustaining the human body to promote psychological and physiological health,” said Grace Douglas, subject matter expert for the challenge and advanced food technology lead scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA had earlier also conducted another competition called the ‘Lunar Loo Challenge’ where it said NASA wants people to help astronauts poop better on the moon. NASA called on the global community for its design concepts around compact toilets that can operate not only in microgravity but also in lunar gravity. The challenge had a total prize purse of $35,000.

Source: Mashable

NASA