Finalists for NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge Include Astronaut Oven & Air Protein Technology

Last week, NASA announced the finalists for the final phase of the Deep Space Food Challenge, a competition designed to help explore and better understand how these agencies can feed humans in space. The US Space Agency awarded $750,000 in prizes in the second phase of its Deep Space Food Challenge, and the winning teams will compete in the final phase of the challenge and $1.5 million in prize money.

The kickoff of the third phase is the culmination of almost two years of competition that saw hundreds of applicants get whittled down to 28 competing in the first round to eleven finalists for phase 2, and as of last week, eight companies competing in phase 3.

The following five US teams are among the eight finalists in phase 3:

• Air Company of Brooklyn, New York, developed a system and processes for turning air, water, electricity, and yeast into food.
• Interstellar Lab of Merritt Island, Florida, created a modular bioregenerative system for producing fresh microgreens, vegetables, mushrooms, and insects.
• 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.

And NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) jointly announced three international companies as Phase 2 winners that can compete 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.

A few thoughts on the finalists:

Two companies building gas fermentation platforms – Air Food and Solar Foods – made the final phase. In a way, the participation of these startups brings the technology full circle since the idea of making protein out of thin air was first explored by NASA in the 1960s when it was searching for ways to feed astronauts on long-range space flights.

SATED is the only one of five US finalists not building a food production system but has invented a deep-space cooking appliance! I guess NASA realized that their astronauts would need more than just chocolate chip cookies baked during space travel.

Some of the most exotic concepts from the early phases – including cultivated meat bioreactors, bread-making machines, and insect protein cultivators – didn’t make the final round, which isn’t all that surprising. Instead, NASA is probably focusing on those technologies that seem the most viable and have the best shot at producing food in extremely harsh environments.

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