NASA Announces Winners of the 2026 Mars to Table Deep Space Food Challenge

NASA has announced the winners of the Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table, awarding a total of $650,000 to five winning teams. The top prize of $300,000 went to Chinyere Ukeje of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Adaptive Nutrition Infrastructure (ANI) Food System Concept.

The competition challenged participants to develop innovative, integrated food systems capable of providing safe, nutritious and varied meals for astronauts living and working in deep space.

What Is NASA’s Mars to Table Challenge?

NASA launched Mars to Table in January 2026 as a successor to the Deep Space Food Challenge, which NASA ran in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency. While the original challenge focused on prototyping new food production methods, the 2026 competition asked teams to think beyond individual technologies and design complete space food production systems.

The proposed systems had to produce a variety of foods while requiring limited crew time and effort to operate and maintain. NASA reviewed 113 applications from teams representing 33 countries and 28 U.S. states before selecting the winning concepts.

“We’re excited to continue advancing the future of the space food system through this challenge,” said Jennifer Edmundson, program manager for the Centennial Challenge at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “The future of human space exploration will depend on innovative food systems. It’s amazing how much ingenuity this challenge has generated in recognition from participants near and far.”

Why Astronauts Need New Food Systems for Mars

Nearly all astronaut meals are currently prepared, packaged and sent to the International Space Station from the Space Food Systems Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. However, a one-way journey to Mars would take at least nine months, making it impractical to transport every meal required for a long-duration mission.

Shelf-stability concerns, mass limitations and the need for fresh nutrition mean prepackaged food cannot remain the default option for future Mars astronauts. NASA’s Mars to Table Challenge explored how food could be grown, processed, preserved and replenished during extended missions.

Mission Scenario for the Mars Food Challenge

Teams were asked to design a food system for a mission involving a crew of 15 astronauts living and working for 500 Mars sols, or approximately 513 Earth days. The competition focused on ground operations and system integration.

Each team submitted design layouts, meal plans, operational concepts and walkthrough videos demonstrating how its proposed system could function during a deep-space mission.

“The standards we set for this competition were challenging, and they were intentional,” said Dr. Alexander Myers, head of the Mars to Table judges. Myers supports the NASA Centennial Challenge through Noetic Strategies from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. “This challenge highlights the complexity of a complete space food system and the human ingenuity required to solve these problems. All new ideas presented in this challenge represent the potential for new tools in NASA’s future space exploration programs.”

NASA Mars to Table Challenge Winners

NASA named five winning teams in the Mars to Table Challenge. Their concepts could help inspire future food production systems for deep-space missions.

First Place: Adaptive Nutrition Infrastructure

Prize: $300,000
Winner: Chinyere Ukeje of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Ukeje’s Adaptive Nutrition Infrastructure, or ANI, is a modular food ecosystem that combines environmentally controlled agriculture, fermentation, fungi cultivation and closed-loop nutrient recycling in bioreactors.

Using Earth’s limited food supply, the system is designed to produce 50% of the food needed off Earth. Named after the Nigerian earth goddess of harvest and fertility, ANI envisions a system capable of preparing fresh meals every day while adapting to shortages of power, water, equipment and crew time.

Second Place: Fresh, Fermented and Preserved Food Infrastructure

Prize: $200,000
Winner: Cisrune of Rosemead, California

Cisrune’s proposed infrastructure cultivates crops selected in the model and converts part of the harvest into familiar foods using instrumented culture cassettes.

The concept also uses protected reserves delivered from Earth to compensate for biological fluctuations, reduce utility costs and provide a backup in the event of rejected batches.

Additional Mars to Table Awards

• Applied Framework Award — $50,000: Oha Kanu of Hilo, Hawaii, for “Oha Kanu: A Mars Food System Inspired by Ahupua’a.”
• Mission Simulation Award — $50,000: Orbital Health Systems, Inc. of Evansville, Indiana, for “The New Lunar Pioneer Cookbook (Mars Edition).”
• Human-Centered Design Award — $50,000: Autonomous Resilience Collective (AEGIS) of Bentonville, Arkansas, for “Mars Enabling Growth Through Adaptive Endurance and Integrated Sustainment.”

International Recognition

NASA also recognized an international team:

• International winner: Astrofood of Elsel, Belgium, for FRESH, a concept focused on harnessing a food resilience ecosystem for space habitats.

Who Managed the Deep Space Food Challenge?

The Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center by Centennial Challenges. The program is part of the Awards, Challenges and Crowdsourcing Program within NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate.

The challenge is also supported by NASA’s Biophysical Sciences Division, Heliophysics Division, Planetary Science Program, Human Research Program and Earth Sciences Division.

For more than 20 years, NASA’s Centennial Challenge has engaged the public in solving complex problems that support the agency’s broader efforts. Past challenges have contributed to advances in robotics, additive manufacturing, power and energy, textiles, chemistry and biology.

The Mars to Table Challenge also received support from subject matter experts at NASA Johnson and NASA Kennedy. The Methuselah Foundation and Floor23 Digital supported challenge management.

For more information about the challenge, visit:

NASA’s Mars to Table Challenge