Challenge Works, part of the UK innovation foundation Nesta, is a global leader in designing and delivering challenge prizes that bring diverse innovators together to tackle complex problems in science, technology and society.

Challenge Works has a strong history of applying this approach to food, agriculture and nutrition, including challenges focused on data-driven farming, food security, sustainable livelihoods and healthier food. Its experience engaging unconventional innovators and using challenge-based approaches to address complex food-system problems aligns closely with the Deep Space Food Consortium’s interest in leveraging open innovation and cross-sector collaboration to develop the food systems needed for long-duration human exploration and habitation.

Heritage Space Food is a nonprofit organization focused on connecting people and cultures to the future of space exploration through food, culinary heritage, and cultural storytelling. Working at the intersection of food, science, culture, and public engagement, Heritage Space Food explores how the traditions and practices we carry with us can help make humanity’s future in space more inclusive, relatable, and human.

Food is at the heart of Heritage Space Food’s work, with a particular focus on the cultural, emotional, and social dimensions of food in extreme environments. Their work examines how culinary heritage, cultural familiarity, and shared food experiences can support identity, wellbeing, connection, and cohesion during long-duration space missions, while also exploring how lessons from space food systems can contribute to more resilient food systems on Earth.

KBR is a global science, technology and engineering company with more than 50 years of experience supporting human spaceflight and exploration. The company provides mission-critical capabilities across the human spaceflight lifecycle, including mission operations, astronaut health and performance, engineering, research, and technology development. KBR

Food and nutrition are an increasingly important area of KBR’s human spaceflight work. KBR is expanding its space food capabilities through plans for a dedicated food laboratory at NASA’s Exploration Park near Johnson Space Center, where it intends to develop, test, validate, produce, and integrate tailored food systems for commercial and government space missions. The facility is envisioned to address areas including nutrition, food safety, shelf life, food production and packaging, and the development of food systems optimized for the constraints of long-duration spaceflight.

Methuselah Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on extending healthy human lifespan by accelerating breakthrough innovations in biotechnology, medicine, and other technologies that can improve human health and longevity. The Foundation uses research, investment, partnerships, and innovation challenges to bring promising ideas from concept to real-world impact, with a particular emphasis on solutions that can benefit humanity both on Earth and beyond.

Food and nutrition have become a significant part of Methuselah Foundation’s work through its partnership with NASA on the Deep Space Food Challenge and its ongoing role in advancing food innovation for long-duration spaceflight. The Foundation administered the U.S. and international competition, which challenged innovators to develop resource-efficient technologies capable of producing safe, nutritious, and palatable food in space, while also creating potential benefits for food production in resource-constrained and extreme environments on Earth. Today, Methuselah continues this work through its administration of Mars to Table and its fiscal sponsorship of the Deep Space Food Consortium.

Monolith Space is a space research and technology company providing mission management, payload development, and space-program strategy expertise. Monolith brings together experience across space systems, technology development, and emerging commercial space initiatives to advance capabilities needed for future human exploration.

Monolith Space is actively exploring aquaculture as a component of sustainable food production and bioregenerative life support systems for deep-space missions. Through its collaboration with Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Monolith is developing a closed-loop, automated aquaculture system—including research into oyster production—as a potential source of food and biological resources for long-duration missions, while also investigating applications for sustainable food production and food security on Earth.

UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management is a global leader in hospitality education and research, bringing together expertise in hospitality, food and beverage, tourism, events, and the human experience. Through interdisciplinary research, industry partnerships, and hands-on learning, Rosen College prepares future leaders to address emerging challenges across the evolving hospitality landscape.

Rosen College is increasingly exploring how hospitality, food, and dining will translate to environments beyond Earth. Students and faculty have engaged in research examining food preparation, dining, and the broader experience of living and eating in space, including participation in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. This work brings an important human-centered perspective to the future space food system, recognizing that successful food systems must address not only nutrition and production, but also enjoyment, experience, culture, and wellbeing.

Space Sensory Lab (SSL) is the special-purpose R&D arm of the World Taste & Smell Association, focused on understanding and improving human sensory experience and wellbeing in space and other extreme environments. Bringing together expertise in sensory science, neuroscience, nutrition, human factors, hospitality, and design, SSL develops sensory-driven approaches to help humans thrive beyond Earth.

Food is a central focus of SSL’s work, particularly the ways taste, smell, flavor perception, appetite, and sensory satisfaction influence nutrition and wellbeing during long-duration spaceflight. As a subject-matter expert and Thought Leadership Partner for the Deep Space Food Consortium and its Mars to Table Challenge, SSL helps ensure that future space food systems consider not only whether food can be produced and consumed, but whether it will be appealing, enjoyable, culturally meaningful, and supportive of human health and quality of life.

The Ohio State University is a leading public research university with broad expertise spanning food science, agriculture, engineering, human health, and environmental sciences. Its interdisciplinary research and innovation capabilities make Ohio State a valuable contributor to efforts addressing complex food and food-system challenges on Earth and in space.

Ohio State has played a significant role in advancing the future of space food, including serving as a partner in the final phase of NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge. The university provided food-processing facilities and academic expertise for the challenge’s technology demonstrations, with student “Simunauts” operating and evaluating food-production technologies under analog mission conditions. Ohio State also hosted the 2024 Deep Space Food Symposium, bringing together researchers, innovators, government representatives, and industry to explore sustainable food systems for long-duration human exploration.

Voyager Technologies is a global space exploration company focused on building the infrastructure, technologies, and capabilities needed to support a sustained human presence in space. Through its businesses and partnerships, including the development of Starlab, Voyager is helping advance the transition from government-led spaceflight to a robust commercial space ecosystem supporting research, manufacturing, exploration, and human habitation in low Earth orbit and beyond.

Food and nutrition are essential components of the long-duration human spaceflight and habitation systems that Voyager Technologies is helping to enable. As a developer of next-generation commercial space infrastructure, Voyager has a strong interest in the technologies, research, and partnerships needed to support crew health, wellbeing, and self-sufficiency—including the evolution of food systems capable of meeting the nutritional, operational, and human needs of people living and working in space for extended periods.