Do you think you can come up with ideas to provide healthy food to astronauts in the space? If yes, you stand a chance to win over Rs 3.6 crore.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), is looking to furnish its crew members with a viable food system for long-duration space missions.
The agency is offering $5,00,000 (Rs 3,63,13,099) to the winners of its Deep Space Food Challenge.
The winner will have to think about ideas for food production that can contribute to and be integrated into a comprehensive food system, according to the space agency.
Phase I of the challenge started on January 12 and participants have time till May 28, 2021, to register. The deadline to submit the ideas is July 30, 2020.
The challenge will identify food production technologies that can help fill food gaps for a three-year round-trip mission with no resupply, feed a crew of four astronauts, achieve the greatest amount of food output with minimal inputs and minimal waste as well as create a variety of palatable, nutritious, and safe food that requires little processing time for crew members.
However, the technology need not meet the full nutritional requirements of future crews.
The winner of the challenge will be announced in September 2021.
(1 USD= 72.6262 INR)