{"id":242450,"date":"2026-10-20T14:23:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T00:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=242450"},"modified":"2026-10-20T14:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T00:25:28","slug":"hawaiian-wisdom-mars-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/10\/20\/hawaiian-wisdom-mars-breakthrough\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaiian wisdom fuels students\u2019 Mars breakthrough for NASA<\/abbr>"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
\"1
Leilani Jensen and Raven Kromer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> seniors beat out hundreds of global competitors—including corporate research teams—to win a $50,000 national NASA<\/abbr> award by proving ancient Hawaiian farming holds the key to feeding astronauts on Mars.<\/p>\n

\"Mars
The NASA<\/abbr> challenge asked teams to design a system that could feed a Mars astronaut crew for long-duration missions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Out of more than 100 final competitors in NASA<\/abbr>\u2019s Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table<\/a>, ʻOh\u0101 Kanu—created by Leilani Jensen and Raven Kromer—was selected as one of five winning designs nationwide. Their design adapts the ancient Hawaiian ahupuaʻa land management system into a modern, multi-zone space agricultural framework. By integrating hydroponics, aquaculture, field crops, and orchards, the zero-waste system creates a self-sustaining ecosystem that eliminates reliance on resupply from Earth.<\/p>\n

“One of the jokes we made was, ‘Ancient Hawaiians were the first space explorers,’” said Kromer, an astronomy and English major who publishes research under the name Raven Daegmorgan.<\/p>\n

Ancient wisdom meets deep space tech<\/h2>\n
\"peanut
The students created a two-week menu that included peanut stew.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project name, ʻOh\u0101 Kanu, references the young taro offshoot (ʻoh\u0101) and the act of planting (kanu). Unlike standard agricultural models that maximize short-term yield, ʻOh\u0101 Kanu focuses on long-term resilience and complete nutrient cycling.<\/p>\n

“We drew upon traditional and Indigenous perspectives for how to produce food,” explained Jensen, a tropical agroecology and environmental science double major. “It was not about designing for maximized productivity. It was designed so that there\u2019s always food on the table, no matter what happens.”<\/p>\n

Read K\u016bkala N\u016bhou to discover how Hawaiian farming inspired a Mars food system.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

糖心视频<\/abbr> Hilo students won a NASA<\/abbr> award by adapting ahupuaʻa land management into a sustainable deep-space food system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":242444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[222,758,14,907],"class_list":["post-242450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-agriculture","tag-environmental-science","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t