NASA announced the winners of its Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, awarding a combined $650,000 across five teams. The top $300,000 prize went to Chinyere Ukeje of Philadelphia for the Adaptive Nourishment Infrastructure concept, a modular food ecosystem combining controlled-environment agriculture, fermentation and fungi cultivation, and closed-loop nutrient recycling through bioreactors. According to NASA, the design aims to produce 50% of food away from Earth with limited Earth-provisioned supplies.

The competition, which launched in January 2026, asked teams to design complete food-production systems rather than individual technologies, judged on 113 submissions from teams in 33 countries and 28 U.S. states. Teams responded to a scenario involving a 15-person crew over 500 Martian sols, about 513 Earth days. NASA said pre-packaged meals are not sustainable for a Mars mission, whose one-way trip takes at least nine months.

Cislune of Rosemead, California, won second place and $200,000 for its Fresh, Ferment, Reserve infrastructure. Additional $50,000 awards went to Ohā Kanu of Hilo, Hawaii; Orbital Health Systems of Evansville, Indiana; and Autonomic Resilience Collective of Bentonville, Arkansas. Astrofood of Ellezelles, Belgium, was recognized as the international winner.