Life on another planet may not be such a far-fetched idea. Two North Colonie students just received national recognition for a design that is meant to produce food on Mars.

Jackson Doolittle and Diego Luna scored a hard-earned win by designing and building a device that could make farming in space possible.

The Shaker High School seniors beat out hundreds of applicants from across the country, and it took them many hours and months to get it done.

“I couldn’t tell you an exact number, but it was a lot. We worked a lot over the summer and then after school days, during class, it was a lot,” Doolittle said.

Doolittle and Luna were one of eight winners of the “Your Place in Space Challenge” from the U.S. Department of Education.

The two seniors used a hydroponic system for their project, they said. It’s a technique to grow a wide variety of plants using a small amount of water. Ideally, this could produce food on Mars, the teens said.

Doolittle and Luna told NewsChannel 13’s Tessa Bentulan how they found out they won.

“We submitted it in November. It was quite a long wait,” Luna said. “I remember just sitting there in Spanish class. Period 3. Constantly refreshing the page to figure it out. When the winners were announced and our names were in there, I was ecstatic. I literally asked my teacher in Spanish if I could step out of the room and tell Jackson.”

“I remember looking down at my phone, and I was just like, I couldn’t believe it. I thought Diego was joking with me. It was just a complete shock. I was not expecting that at all,” Doolittle said.

Doolittle and Luna gave a special thanks to their technology education teacher, Kevin Smith for this opportunity.

“Sometimes you find a team that has unique interests. Diego and Jackson have a unique specialization,” Smith said.