The Autonomic Resilience Collective (ARC), an independent research nonprofit in Bentonville, Arkansas, received NASA’s $50,000 Human-Centered Design Award on Sept. 24, 2026, for AEGIS Mars.
AEGIS Mars, developed by Chandler Buckingham and Kyle Johnson, is a proposed food-system and habitat design concept for supporting 15 crew members on a 500-sol mission to Mars.
The concept examines how meal preparation, crew preferences, circulation, maintenance, private and communal spaces, food production, and resource management can be integrated in long-duration space habitation.
