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Brazilian students win unprecedented award from NASA! In addition, the space agency's new challenge is now open for registration and anyone can participate – find out how to register!
Brazilian students from the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU) have won a NASA award for the first time, marking a historic achievement for Brazil and all of South America. The competition had more than 93 participants from several countries, challenged to solve at least one of the 20 problems proposed by the North American space agency. In this article, we explain the details of the achievement and how to participate in the next NASA challenges.
Find out what Brazilian students won in the NASA challenge
NASA's challenge, which took place between October 5th and 6th, 2024, awarded the team of Brazilian students from UFU after the students offered the “42 Quake Heroes” as a response to NASA’s challenge “Seismic detection across the solar system. The project was developed by Gabriel Chayb, Ana Borges, Larissa Mello and Gustavo Matos, in addition to former students Gustavo Tavares and Alailton Alves Junior.
The innovative solution to NASA’s new challenge won the award for “Best Use of Technology.” The event will be celebrated in June of this year, when Brazilian students will visit NASA’s facilities in person.
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The 42 Quake Heroes project, which won the NASA award, is based on improving the identification of tremors on the Moon and Mars, ensuring that data is sent to Earth in an optimized way and reducing energy consumption.
According to data from the Comunica UFU Portal, the winning project of the NASA challenge uses a form of deep neural network specifically trained to accurately identify the beginning of seismic shocks in celestial bodies.
New NASA challenge could pay up to R$17 million
The project's technique, which received the NASA award, is already used in medicine to detect tumors, and was adapted by the students to analyze and evaluate seismic records from space missions. In addition, the Brazilian students also developed an interactive website where the general public can explore lunar seismic data and better understand these events.
Another NASA challenge promises a super attractive reward for those who manage to solve a challenge that has been unanswered for more than 50 years. The NASA award has an estimated value of almost three million dollars, equivalent to R$17 million.
NASA's new challenge requires a creative and innovative solution to figure out what to do with human waste (feces and urine) in space. Since the first astronauts set foot on the Moon in 1969, this problem has not had a solution. Not even engineers or aeronautical experts have been able to find a solution to the problem.
Learn how to participate in NASA's new challenge
Anyone from anywhere in the world can participate and compete in the NASA challenge, without needing to be an expert, scientist or affiliated with any university or specific profession. In this way, ordinary individuals, students, universities or even groups of people can join this mission. Registration for the new NASA challenge can be done until March 30th at University of Alabama website.
It is worth mentioning that another challenge proposed by NASA promises to pay a prize of up to R$265 to those who seek to offer the most innovative solution. The challenge, called South Pole Safety, focuses on bringing innovative solutions that guarantee the safety of astronauts who will be on board the Artemis program.
This new challenge, which offers prizes from NASA, will select individuals or groups that present the best solution to the problems presented. Participants must submit proposals that can be used during the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2026, when the space agency plans to launch the mission that will explore the Lunar South Pole.
