Raymond Wheeler

Recognized under Tier 6 — Food Systems, Raymond Wheeler has spent four decades pioneering research in controlled environment agriculture, bioregenerative life support, and plant-based food production for long-duration spaceflight. Wheeler's work on NASA's Advanced Plant Habitat and the VEGGIE system aboard the International Space Station has helped demonstrate that growing food in space is not only possible but practical — a foundational step toward the self-sustaining food systems that any permanent Mars settlement will depend upon. Wheeler's body of research aims to ensure that future generations of space explorers have enough to eat, and that those food systems are as sustainable as the missions themselves.