Скачать или смотреть AST201 Project 2: The Deep Space Food Challenge

Transcript:

This is Ryan. He’s an astronaut on the way to Mars. He’s enjoying the view when all of a sudden, he gets really hungry. He floats over to the compartment where they keep the food and to his horror, there isn’t any food that is enjoyable and nutritious! Good thing he’s actually not an astronaut though. He’s actually an inventor.

Ryan recently heard about the Deep Space Food Challenge earlier this year and wanted to create a solution to this food problem.

So, what is the Deep Space Food Challenge you may ask? Well, The Canadian Space Agency along with NASA are seeking innovators who are able to find a way to generate food production technologies that require minimal inputs but at the same time are safe, nutritious and tastes good (“Challenge”). The innovations that come out of this challenge will be used for space missions to the Moon, Mars and potentially beyond (“Challenge”).

The innovative food system would need to:
1. Provide astronauts with all the nutrition that they need daily (“Challenge”)
2. Provide food that is both safe and tastes good (“Challenge”)
3. Be quick and safe in terms of preparing the food (“Challenge”)
and
4. Not depend on shipments to the spacecraft from Earth over a long period of time (“Challenge”)

Being able to invent these innovative food production technologies would allow space missions to last longer (“Challenge”). As astronauts travel farther and farther into space, they would need to decrease the number of times they get resupplied with food from Earth (“Challenge”). This is where these innovative food production technologies come into play (“Challenge”). As a result of this challenge, astronauts would thus be able to consume enjoyable and nutritious food that would keep them physically and psychologically well (“Challenge”). Not only does this challenge work towards helping those out in space, but innovations from this challenge can be repurposed to aid food systems here on Earth as well (Howell). People living in remote communities who endure hostile environments face food security problems due to where they are geographically (“Challenge”). Food insecurity is present in urban areas as well (“Challenge”). Innovations that derive from the challenge would help combat all of that!

Ryan is just one out of many entities based in Canada who can apply to this competition. Those who can apply include Canadian for-profit organizations, not-for-profit organizations, Indigenous organizations, academic institutions as well as groups of individuals or individuals (“Challenge”). For groups of individuals or individuals like Ryan, they would need to find a Canadian legal entity who can enter into contracts in Canada (“Challenge”).


There are 3 stages to this challenge:
Phase 1 requires participants to come up with a design report with details on their food technology plans (“Challenge”). This phase lasts from January 21st 2021 to July 30th 2021 (“Challenge”). Up to 10 Canadians with good designs are chosen to proceed to Phase 2 with each winning $30,000 CAD (“Challenge”).
Phase 2 requires participants to build and test a prototype of their technology (“Challenge”). They would also be required to submit samples of the food outputs (“Challenge”). This phase would occur in the Fall of 2021 until the Fall of 2022 (“Challenge”). Up to 4 Canadians are eligible to move onto the final phase with each winning $100,000 CAD (“Challenge”).
Phase 3 requires participants to create their solutions to scale and demonstrate how it works (“Challenge”). This phase will last over 12 to 18 months, finishing in the spring of 2024 (“Challenge”). The participant with the most promising results will ultimately be the Canadian winner of the Deep Space Food Challenge, walking away with a grand prize of $380,000 CAD (“Challenge”).

Ryan is working real hard to win. He’s waiting to hear from the judges to see if he made it past Phase 1. He desperately wants his innovations to contribute to more explorations out in space. Let’s hope he wins!