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NASA is awarding up to $50 to anyone who develops innovative navigation technologies for the Artemis lunar mission. Find out how you can participate and help revolutionize space exploration!
NASA is gearing up for a new era of lunar exploration with its ambitious Artemis Mission. This series of missions aims to send humans to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, since the iconic Apollo missions.
The main focus of the Artemis missions is to explore the lunar south pole, an area with unique characteristics that could provide valuable resources for future missions to Mars.
The first of these missions is scheduled to land astronauts at the south pole, a region with permanently shadowed craters that may contain water ice — a crucial resource for sustaining long-term missions in space.
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Among the areas of greatest interest is the Shackleton Crater, a geological formation measuring 21 kilometers in diameter and 4,2 kilometers deep.
Due to its steep slopes and lack of sunlight, the temperature at the crater's base can reach less than 90 K, making it a potential reservoir for ice. water.
The exploration of this crater is one of NASA's priority missions, which sees this region as an opportunity to collect critical information about the presence of natural resources and their possible applications for future missions, especially those destined for the Red Planet.
To ensure the success of these missions, NASA has launched two technology challenges, open to experts, researchers and enthusiasts around the world. The goal is to find innovative solutions to the demands that lunar exploration presents.
The first challenge
O 1 Challenge involves developing navigation technology that allows astronauts to safely explore lunar terrain.
During the Apollo missions, rudimentary guidance devices were used to ensure the safe return of astronauts to the lunar module after spacewalks. However, NASA is looking for modern and more efficient solutions.
The new device must be extremely accurate, easy to use, and work well in the harsh environment of the Moon. One of the biggest challenges is that it must be operated by astronauts wearing pressurized gloves, which requires a practical and intuitive design.. The prize for the best solutions to this challenge is up to US$15.000.
The second challenge
O 2 Challenge is focused on exploring Shackleton Crater. NASA needs a system that can map the crater floor in detail, characterize the features present, and transmit that information back to Earth.
This project must be able to operate in the extreme temperatures of the lunar south pole and provide accurate data for future missions. Participants must submit detailed and innovative design concepts. For this challenge, the prize can be up to US$ 30.000.
Additionally, NASA has also established an additional award of US$ 5.000 for solutions that demonstrate exceptional performance in either of the two challenges.
In total, they are US$ 50.000 in prizes distributed among the winners. Registration for the challenges is open from the day September 4th, 2024 and can be sent up to November 25th, 2024 through this link.
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