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Brazilian Students Win Unprecedented Award from NASA! In addition, a new challenge from the space agency is open for registration and anyone can participate – find out how to register!
Brazilian students from the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU) have won, for the first time, an award from NASA, marking a historic achievement for Brazil and all of South America. The competition had over 93,000 participants from different countries, challenged to solve at least one of the 20 problems proposed by the American space agency. In this article, we explain the details of the achievement and how to participate in the upcoming NASA challenges.
Find Out What Brazilian Students Won in the NASA Challenge
The NASA challenge, which took place between October 5 and 6, 2024, awarded the team of Brazilian students from UFU after they offered “42 Quake Heroes” as a response to the NASA challenge “Seismic Detection Across the Solar System. The project was developed by Gabriel Chayb, Ana Borges, Larissa Mello, and Gustavo Matos, along with alumni Gustavo Tavares and Alailton Alves Junior.
The innovative solution for the new NASA challenge won the award for “Best Use of Technology. The event celebration will take place in June of this year, when the Brazilian students will visit NASA facilities in person.
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The 42 Quake Heroes project that won the NASA award is based on improving the identification of tremors on the Moon and Mars, ensuring that data is sent back to Earth in an optimized manner while reducing energy consumption.
According to data from the Portal Comunica UFU, the winning project of the NASA challenge uses a form of deep neural network specifically trained to accurately identify the beginning of seismic tremors on celestial bodies.
New NASA Challenge May Pay Up to R$ 17 Million
The technique of the project that received the NASA award is already used in medicine for tumor detection and has been adapted by the students to analyze and evaluate the 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 can solve a challenge that has remained unanswered for over 50 years. The NASA award has an estimated value of nearly three million dollars, equivalent to R$ 17 million.
The new NASA challenge requires a creative and innovative solution for dealing with human waste (feces and urine) in space. Since the first astronauts landed on the Moon in 1969, this problem has remained unsolved. Neither engineers nor aerospace specialists have been able to find a solution to the issue.
Find Out How to Participate in the New NASA Challenge
Anyone from anywhere in the world can participate and compete in the NASA challenge, without needing to be a specialist, 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. Registrations for the new NASA challenge can be done until March 30 at the University of Alabama website.
It is worth mentioning that another challenge proposed by NASA promises to pay a prize of up to R$ 265 thousand for those seeking to offer the most innovative solution. The challenge, named South Pole Safety, focuses on bringing innovative solutions that ensure the safety of astronauts aboard the Artemis program.
This new challenge, offering a NASA award, will select individuals or groups that present the best solution for the problems presented. Participants need to submit proposals that can be used during the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2026, when the space agency plans to launch the mission to explore the Lunar South Pole.
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