MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
The DSFC collaborates with organizations around the world that are working to advance the research, development and demonstration of food systems for space exploration and for the betterment of life on Earth. Member Organizations are mission-aligned and participate in the Consortium’s programs, initiatives, research, and community. They have the opportunity to contribute their expertise, capabilities, and resources while collaborating with other members to advance the future of food systems.
* Foundational Members have a special notation and are recognized for their early involvement in the Consortium, its initial programs, initiatives, and community. These members have contributed to the inspiration and foundation of the DSFC and continue to make defined, substantive contributions to the development of sustainable and evolvable space food systems to enable the exploration and habitation of space while contributing to improved food systems on Earth.
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
*Foundational Member
Methuselah Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on accelerating breakthrough innovations that can extend healthy human lifespan and improve human health and longevity. Through research, partnerships, investment, and innovation challenges, the Foundation works to advance technologies 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 continued support for food innovation in space. The Foundation administered the U.S. and international competition, which challenged innovators to develop resource-efficient technologies capable of producing safe, nutritious, and appealing food for long-duration space missions, while also creating potential benefits for food production in resource-constrained environments on Earth.
The Deep Space Food Consortium is fiscally sponsored by the Methuselah Foundation.
Canadensys Aerospace Corporation is a Canadian space systems company specializing in advanced technologies and infrastructure for planetary, orbital, and terrestrial environments. The company develops ruggedized space hardware and systems for government and commercial customers, with capabilities spanning lunar mobility, scientific instruments, exploration infrastructure, and technologies supporting long-term human presence beyond Earth.
Canadensys is actively advancing agriculture and food production technologies for future lunar and deep-space missions. Working with the Canadian Space Agency and academic partners, the company is developing technologies for lunar greenhouses and closed-loop agriculture, including plant growth systems, nutrient delivery, lighting, water management, and plant health monitoring. Its work on the Lunar Agriculture Module Ground Test Demonstrator is helping mature the bioregenerative food-production and life-support capabilities needed to support sustainable human exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Challenge Works, part of the UK innovation foundation Nesta, designs and delivers challenge prizes that bring innovators together to tackle complex problems in science, technology, and society. Through open innovation and outcome-focused competitions, Challenge Works has delivered more than 100 challenges designed to accelerate breakthrough solutions and create lasting impact.
Challenge Works has applied its challenge-prize expertise 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 central to Heritage Space Food’s work, particularly the cultural, emotional, and social dimensions of food in extreme environments. Its work explores how culinary heritage, cultural familiarity, and shared food experiences can support identity, wellbeing, connection, and cohesion during long-duration space missions, while also considering how lessons from space food systems can contribute to more resilient food systems on Earth
The Institute of Competition Sciences (ICS) is an organization specializing in the design and management of challenge-based learning and innovation programs. ICS develops and operates competitions and prize programs to engage students, innovators, educators, and communities in solving real-world problems and developing new skills and technologies.
ICS has a direct connection to the future of space food through its development and management of several student-focused challenge and projects including the Space Food Design Challenge, which engaged high school and undergraduate students in designing innovative food production systems for future space stations and lunar bases. ICS and the Deep Space Food Consortium are collaborating to engage the next generations of students in the space food ecosystem.
KBR is a global science, technology, and engineering company 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.
Food and nutrition are an emerging area of KBR’s human spaceflight work. KBR is expanding its space food capabilities through plans for a dedicated food laboratory near NASA’s Johnson Space Center focused on developing, testing, validating, producing, and integrating food systems for commercial and government space missions, with applications spanning nutrition, food safety, shelf life, food production, and packaging.
Monolith Space is a space research and technology company focused on mission management, payload development, and space-program strategy. The organization brings together expertise in space systems, technology development, and emerging commercial space initiatives to advance capabilities for future human exploration.
Monolith Space is exploring aquaculture as a component of sustainable food production and bioregenerative life-support systems for deep-space missions. Its work includes development of closed-loop, automated aquaculture systems 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.
University of Central Florida’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 explores emerging challenges and opportunities across the evolving hospitality landscape.
Rosen College is exploring how hospitality, food, and dining will translate to environments beyond Earth. Its students and faculty have engaged in research examining food preparation, dining, and the broader experience of living and eating in space, bringing an important human-centered perspective to the future space food system, including the roles of enjoyment, experience, culture, and well-being alongside nutrition and production.
Solar Foods is a Finnish food technology company developing new ways to produce nutritious protein independently of traditional agriculture. Its flagship product, Solein®, is a versatile microbial protein produced through fermentation using carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and electricity, enabling food production with substantially less reliance on land, water, and conventional agricultural resources.
Solar Foods has a strong and direct connection to the future of space food systems. The company was selected as the international category winner of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge and is developing Solein production technology for potential use aboard the International Space Station through an ESA-funded project. Solar Foods is exploring how its technology could provide a nutritious, resource-efficient source of protein for future space stations and lunar and Martian habitats while also demonstrating how food production can become more resilient and resource-efficient on Earth.
Space Applications Services, Inc. is a space technology and research organization focused on enabling commercial and international access to space-based research and experimentation. Space Applications Services operates the International Commercial Experiment (ICE) Cubes platform aboard the International Space Station, providing researchers and innovators with access to a flexible, commercially operated facility for conducting experiments in the microgravity environment.
Space Applications Services’ experience enabling research aboard the ISS provides valuable infrastructure and expertise for advancing technologies relevant to future space food systems. By facilitating access to space-based experimentation, AANA can help researchers and innovators test food, biological, and other life-support technologies under real spaceflight conditions—supporting the Consortium’s goal of moving promising food-system innovations from terrestrial development toward flight readiness.
Space Sensory Lab is a specialized research and development initiative 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, Space Sensory Lab develops sensory-driven approaches to help humans thrive beyond Earth.
Food is a central focus of Space Sensory Lab’s work, particularly the ways taste, smell, flavor perception, appetite, and sensory satisfaction influence nutrition and wellbeing during long-duration spaceflight. Its work 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 enable the university to address 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 challenge technology demonstrations and 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 developing 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 a 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 is helping to enable. As a developer of next-generation commercial space infrastructure, Voyager has an 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.