COLUMBUS, Ohio — The logistics that go into sending astronauts to space go far beyond making sure the rocket ship is ready to go. Among the important things NASA has to consider is making sure the astronauts have enough food for their mission, especially as those missions are getting longer.

What You Need To Know

• NASA created the Deep Space Food Challenge to find sustainable systems that can keep food good during long trips to space, the moon and Mars


• The final phase was hosted at Ohio State


• Jacob Scoccimerra, space program lead at Interstellar Lab in D.C., was part of the team that won

That led NASA to create the Deep Space Food Challenge. 

Jacob Scoccimerra, space program lead at Interstellar Lab in D.C., was part of the team that won the international competition with the goal of creating sustainable systems that can keep food good during long trips to space, the moon and mars.

He says his group developed a system that can grow vegetables and other foods without rain, soil, and sunshine.

“Three of the nine corks are dedicated to helping the computer water irrigation system, the airflow. Then the other six quarts are dedicated to growing the biology inside of them.” Scoccimerra said,

The system was tested for over a month and a half at Ohio State, which then hosted the symposium where the winners were unveiled.

John Horack runs the aerospace technology program at Ohio State and helped facilitate some of the tests on campus. He says developing new systems is a step in the right direction. 

“Right now, everything that’s eaten on the space station is carried up by a rocket,” Horack said. “And we can’t just carry everything with us that we want to take to Mars or even for a long duration on the moon.” 

Horack says advanced food systems will also have benefits here on earth. 

“Growing plants in space and fresh food in space is going to be just as important as it is on the ground,” he said. “Our diet is better with fresh food; calories are cheap and nutrition is really important. So it can’t just be about the calories. It’s got to be about the minerals and other nutrients that you get from plants.”

But even though the system Scoccimerra’s team came up with was victorious, there’s more work ahead. 

“This particular unit is not currently designed for spaceflight. So, we need to do a lot of things to it to modify it to meet those requirements of spaceflight,” he said.

He hopes to have it ready by early next year and is over the moon for the day their system makes it up in space.