NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have been conducting a competition for companies to provide nutritious and tasty food for astronauts on long-term missions, and that competition has been narrowed to five finalists on the American side, with three additional internationally-based competitors rounding out the field. Called the Deep Space Food Challenge, the goal of this competition is to generate novel food production technologies or systems that require minimal resources and produce minimal waste while creating items or cuisine that are actually appealing to the crew.

“The International Space Station is restocked every 60 to 90 days, and we are able to manage the waste generated from those payload deliveries,” said Denise Morris, program manager for Centennial Challenges which is managed out of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “In order to get to Mars and beyond, we must adapt how we feed our crews with no resupply, little added waste and resources, and an ideal level of labor. The solutions derived from the Deep Space Food Challenge will bridge this massive technology gap, allowing us to venture further and longer than we ever have before.”

Two companies with facilities on the Space Coast are among the eight finalists:

• Interstellar Lab of Merritt Island, Florida, created a modular bioregenerative system for producing fresh microgreens, vegetables, mushrooms, and insects.
• The Eternal BIO division of Kernel Deltech USA of Cape Canaveral, Florida, developed a system for cultivating mushroom-based ingredients.
• Nolux of Riverside, California, created a solution that mimics the photosynthesis that happens in nature to produce plant- and mushroom-based ingredients.
• SATED (Safe Appliance, Tidy, Efficient, and Delicious) of Boulder, Colorado, developed a space cooking appliance that would allow astronauts to prepare a variety of meals from ingredients with long shelf lives.
• Air Company of Brooklyn, New York, developed a system and processes for turning air, water, electricity, and yeast into food.

The five finalists will each receive $150,000 in prizes from NASA and advance to compete for up to $1.5 million in total prizes in Phase 3.

Additionally, there three internationally-based companies that were selected by NASA and the CSA to participate in Phase 3:

• Enigma of the Cosmos of Melbourne, Australia, created an adaptive growing system to increase the efficiency of plants’ natural growth cycles.
• Mycorena of Gothenburg, Sweden, developed a system that uses a combination of microalgae and fungi to produce a microprotein.
• Solar Foods of Lappeenranta, Finland, created a system that uses gas fermentation to produce single-cell proteins.

Kernel Deltech / Eternal Bio

According to their press release, Kernel Deltech has created a unit that leverages fungi fermentation to create a sustainable, nutrient-rich food source for astronauts on long-duration missions. To accomplish this they have built a device that relies on artificial intelligence and robotics to do much of the work, reducing the complexity and hours required by human astronauts to gain nutrition from the system.

“After winning the previous phase, expectations were high. We are proud to have made it to the NASA final,” said Lucas Gago, Chief Innovation Officer of Eternal. “This technology has the potential to revolutionize the alternative protein industry, both for space exploration and democratizing access to good nutrition here on Earth.” Added Miguel Neumann, who has recently become the Company CEO.

Kernel Deltech says the prototype is no larger than a kitchen appliance and can be easily modularly introduced into habitats and spacecraft.

Interstellar Lab

Interstellar has developed a device that they are calling “Nucleus.” According to their marketing materials, they have “developed a closed-loop food-production system that incorporates microgreens, vegetables, mushrooms and insects that covering astronaut food gaps during long-term space missions.”

Interstellar adds that Nucleus passed Phase 1 and Phase 2 prototyping and has been tested at Kennedy Space Center. They add that the Phase 3 prototype will be delivered to NASA between July and October of this year.

Experiments To Grow Plants On ISS Already Ongoing

While the “Deep Space Food Challenge” winners will undoubtedly help extend the variety and efficiencies of astronaut cuisine in space, NASA has already been working on growing food aboard the International Space Station:

The agency states in an article they published that they have been experimenting with a device called “Veggie” that can grow greens for astronauts aboard the orbiting outpost: “The Vegetable Production System, known as Veggie, is a space garden residing on the space station. Veggie aims to help NASA study plant growth in microgravity, while adding fresh food to the astronauts’ diet and enhancing happiness and well-being on the orbiting laboratory.”

“The Veggie garden is about the size of a carry-on piece of luggage and typically holds six plants. Each plant grows in a “pillow” filled with a clay-based growth media and fertilizer. The pillows are important to help distribute water, nutrients and air in a healthy balance around the roots. Otherwise, the roots would either drown in water or be engulfed by air because of the way fluids in space tend to form bubbles.”

“Veggie” is among other prototypes being tested by NASA: “[An] Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), like Veggie, is a growth chamber on station for plant research. It uses LED lights and a porous clay substrate with controlled release fertilizer to deliver water, nutrients and oxygen to the plant roots.”

“Unlike Veggie, it is enclosed and automated with cameras and more than 180 sensors that are in constant interactive contact with a team on the ground at Kennedy, so it doesn’t need much day-to-day care from the crew,” NASA added.

In addition to dwarf wheat and other foods, “Veggie” has grown zinnias, which astronaut Scott Kelly brought back to Earth in 2016.

Since Kelly assembled his orbiting bouquet, additional research has been ongoing. Plant research on Station has led to multiple papers in scientific journals, including results from the Seedling Growth investigations, which were subsequently published in Nature.

Also, according to NASA, “Another plant study, the Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC) experiment, tested a system to protect plants by removing viruses, bacteria, and mold from the plant growth chamber. That system has been used in the grocery industry to prolong the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables and in wine storage cellars.”

NASA adds, “To achieve the ultimate goal – growing plants for food in space and for habitats on the Moon and Mars – researchers must develop larger growth systems. The Veg-05 investigation is taking steps toward that goal by examining the effect of light quality and fertilizer on fruit production and analyzing the safety, nutritional value, and taste of the fruit.”

In addition to the work already completed and other work that is ongoing on ISS right now, NASA undoubtedly hopes to add to its portfolio of equipment, techniques and variety of growing foodstuffs in space. That will be vital not only to a long-duration crew’s health, but also their mental well-being. Having a taste of “home” so far away from it will undoubtedly be one of the little pleasures that make travelling interplanetary distances more bearable.