Chinyere “Chichi” Ukeje, a 25-year-old Philadelphia-based designer with Nigerian family roots, has won NASA’s $300,000 first prize for a proposed system to produce fresh food for astronauts on Mars.
NASA announced her victory in the Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table on September 24. Her entry, Adaptive Nourishment Infrastructure (ANI), takes its name from Ani, the Igbo earth goddess associated with harvest and fertility.
Ukeje is originally from Bowie, Maryland, and lives in Northeast Philadelphia, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
How the winning concept would work
NASA describes ANI as a modular system combining controlled-environment crop production, fermentation, fungi cultivation and nutrient recycling through bioreactors.
The proposal aims to produce half of the crew’s food away from Earth, with supplies brought from Earth providing the remainder.
It also envisages fresh meals prepared daily and arrangements to maintain food production when power, water, equipment or crew time become limited.
The award recognises a design concept rather than an operational system already feeding astronauts.
A food plan for long-duration missions
The Mars to Table competition asked participants to develop integrated food systems for future missions, bringing meal planning and food-production technologies together.
The exercise addressed a mission scenario involving 15 astronauts spending 500 Martian days on the surface—approximately 513 Earth days.
Such systems would help address the difficulty of relying entirely on food transported from Earth during prolonged missions. The challenge focused on meeting nutritional needs while managing limited resources and the time astronauts could devote to food production.
In separate coverage of space technology, The Bureau Journal reported on Nigeria’s procurement programme for six new satellites and plans to expand domestic satellite assembly capacity.
NASA awarded $650,000 in prizes
Ukeje’s concept took first place among 113 submissions from 33 countries and 28 US states.
Cislune, based in Rosemead, California, received the $200,000 second prize for its Fresh, Ferment, Reserve proposal.
Three specialist awards of $50,000 each went to Ohā Kanu, Orbital Health Systems and Autonomic Resilience Collective. NASA also recognised Belgium’s Astrofood as the international winner.
The competition ran from January to September 2026 and awarded $650,000 in total prizes. It followed NASA’s earlier Deep Space Food Challenge, which ran from 2021 to 2024.
Nigerian roots reflected in the winning design
The ANI name connects Ukeje’s proposal for future space exploration with her Igbo cultural heritage.
Her achievement also highlights the contributions of young people to technological problem-solving. In Nigeria, The Bureau Journal has covered NITDA’s plans to organise young Nigerians’ ideas into policy proposals and a diaspora-supported Kogi Youth-in-Tech programme providing digital training, laptops and internet equipment.
Ukeje’s winning proposal remains a concept for development and testing before it could support an actual crew on Mars.
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