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International Space Station: The food there is sufficient, says ex-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.
"But there is always room for improvement."
Photo: - / AFP
Suggestions for astronaut food with the help of microorganisms, insects or 3D printers have been awarded in a competition of the space agencies of the USA and Canada - and a team from Germany is among them.
The "Electric Cow" team proposed using microorganisms and 3D printers to produce food from carbon dioxide, among other things, announced the US space agency Nasa on Monday at a pre-recorded video show.
The so-called Deep Space Food Challenge had around 180 submissions from all over the world.
The competition was advertised primarily with a view to longer missions to more distant destinations in space, said Nasa boss Bill Nelson.
"We have to design food that can help us when we go to Mars."
18 winning teams from the USA were rewarded with 25,000 US dollars each - so the total prize money was 450,000 dollars.
In addition, ten contributions from teams from Canada and the rest of the world were recognized with praise (a list of all winning teams can be found here on the NASA homepage).
All winners were also invited to take part in a second phase of the competition.
"We're really excited to see what you'll be boiling," said US entrepreneur and guest juror Martha Stewart.
Ex-NASA astronaut Scott Kelly was also one of the guest jurors.
He had spent around a year on the International Space Station.
The food there was sufficient, said Kelly.
“But there is always room for improvement.
Growing something, preparing something and eating well makes you feel at home. "
aar / dpa