As an astronaut traverses the lunar South Pole, tribocharging from walking on the lunar surface and plasma charging from the ambient plasma generate electric charge on the spacesuit. This problem is severely compounded when entering lunar shadows and Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs). In these dark zones, the spacesuit can buildup a substantial negative potential due […]
NASA’s 2027 Human Lander Challenge is seeking ideas from college and university students to help address one of the most critical needs for sustained lunar exploration: reliable communications. As NASA prepares for long-term human presence on the Moon through the Artemis and Moon Base programs, communications systems will be just as important as spacecraft and […]
Following a successful inaugural year of ingenuity and career building, NASA ORBIT (Opportunities in Research, Business, Innovation, and Technology) has officially returned for a second season to bring university and college student innovation to the forefront of Earth technology development and deep-space exploration. Registration for the 2026–2027 challenge is open through Monday, Nov. 16, 2026, […]
The NASA ORBIT (Opportunities in Research, Business, Innovation, and Technology for the Workforce) Challenge invites university and community college students nationwide to work with real NASA intellectual property and mission challenges. Choose your path: develop commercial applications of NASA patents that solve problems here on Earth (ORBIT Earth), or design next-generation technologies for space exploration […]
NASA announced the winners of the Deep Space Food Challenge: Mars to Table Thursday, with the top $300,000 prize being awarded to Chinyere Ukeje of Philadelphia, Pa. for the Adaptive Nourishment Infrastructure (ANI) food system concept. This competition challenged solvers to explore innovative solutions for integrated space food systems that would provide safe, nutritious meals […]
NASA named a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the first prize winner for Phase 2 of the agency’s LunaRecycle Challenge, which focused on developing solutions for reducing waste during missions to the Moon or deep space by recycling common materials, like fabrics, plastics, foam, and metals. The Composites for Extraterrestrial Recycling By Engineering the Reuse and Upcycling of Zotek (CERBERUZ) team, comprised of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students at MIT, received a total of $775,000 in awards. The technology grinds mixed trash into a fine powder, […]
NASA will announce the winners of the final phase of its LunaRecycle Challenge on Friday, Aug. 28, at The University of Alabama (UA) Lee Styslinger College of Engineering in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Launched in 2024, the challenge incentivizes the invention of new recycling systems that could support non-metabolic waste management efforts for future lunar missions. Media […]
The Orbital Clarity Challenge — the sixth in the NASA TechLeap Prize series — is a collaborative effort between NASA’s Heliophysics Division, Flight Opportunities program, and Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. The Heliophysics Division studies space weather, including how it heats and expands Earth’s outer atmosphere during intense solar activity, creating orbital drag through atmospheric density changes. The […]
NASA’s next Gateways to Blue Skies competition invites collegiate teams to imagine innovative new ways aircraft could inspect land-based infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels, to improve safety, reliability, and costs by 2035 or sooner. Infrastructure is the foundation of the nation’s strong economy, global competitiveness, and daily quality of life. When that infrastructure is […]
As NASA prepares to establish the Moon Base, advancing surface mobility will be key to helping crews and robotic systems travel farther across the lunar surface. To help advance that capability, the Rock and Roll with NASA Challenge invited public innovators to design and build next-generation lunar rover wheels. Five teams from 128 submissions and 49 countries advanced to the final phase of the […]