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    • Competitions & Challenges

    Competitions and Challenges for Students

    Don’t miss out on student competition opportunities available from NASA.  Check this page often for new additions.

    SPECIAL STATEMENT:

    NASA has been closely monitoring developments of the COVID-19 outbreak. We are aware that many of the student teams participating in the Artemis Student Challenges must cope with limited or suspended physical access to campuses, travel restrictions or other impediments that may affect their ability to participate in the challenges as proposed.

    Due to these hurdles we continue to face, and out of an abundance of caution for the teams and our workforce, activities for each of these events may look different than originally planned. It should be noted that the technical work completed by each team will not go unnoticed. Challenge managers for each activity will be in contact with participants on specifics and changes to the challenges, if any. We will continue to monitor the situation, and remain flexible and adapt as it evolves. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

    Break the Ice Lunar Challenge

    From garage inventors to university students and entrepreneurs, NASA is looking for ideas on how to excavate the Moon’s icy regolith, or dirt, and deliver it to a hypothetical processing plant at the lunar South Pole. The NASA Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenge, is now open for registration. The competition will take place over two phases and will reward new ideas and approaches for a system architecture capable of excavating and moving icy regolith and water on the lunar surface. The mission architectures developed in the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge aim to help guide machine design and operation concepts for future terrestrial and lunar mining and excavation operations and equipment for decades to come.

    Open Date: November 18, 2020
    Close Date: June 18, 2021
    Awards: Up to $500K for Phase 1
    Frequency: Potential for two phases
    For more information, visit: breaktheicechallenge.com

    Deep Space Food Challenge

    In coordination with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA has opened the Deep Space Food Challenge. The goal is to generate novel food production technologies or systems that require minimal resources and produce minimal waste, while providing safe, nutritious, and tasty food for long-duration human exploration missions.

    Astronauts need hearty nutrients to maintain a healthy diet in space, but like any of us, they want their food to taste good, too! As NASA develops concepts for longer crewed missions to Mars and beyond, the agency will need innovative and sustainable food systems that check all the boxes. Additionally, advanced food systems will have benefits here on Earth, too. Solutions from this challenge could enable new avenues for food production around the world, especially in extreme environments, resource-scarce regions, and in new places like urban areas and in locations where disasters disrupt critical infrastructure.

    Open Date: January 12, 2021
    Registration Close Date: May 28, 2021
    Submission Deadline: July 30, 2021
    Awards: Up to $500K for Phase 1
    Frequency: Potential for two phases
    For more information, visit: deepspacefoodchallenge.org

    Moon to Mars eXploration Systems and Habitation (M2M X-Hab) 2022 Academic Innovation Challenge

    The Moon to Mars eXploration Systems and Habitation (M2M X-Hab) 2022 Academic Innovation Challenge is a university-level challenge designed to develop strategic partnerships and collaborations with universities. The competition is intended to link with senior- and graduate-level design curricula that emphasize hands-on design, research, development, and manufacturing of functional prototypical subsystems that enable functionality for space habitats and deep space exploration missions.

    The Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Division will offer multiple awards of $15k – $50k each to design and produce studies or functional products of interest to the AES Division (see Section 3.2, M2M X-Hab Proposal Topic List) as proposed by university teams according to their interests and expertise.

    Proposals will be accepted from faculty who are U.S. citizens and currently teach an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)-accredited engineering senior or graduate design, industrial design, or architecture curriculum teaming course at a university affiliated with the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, or other US accredited university. Multidisciplinary, multi-departmental, and/or multi-institutional teaming collaborations are highly encouraged.

    Proposals Due Date: April 23, 2021
    For more information, visit https://spacegrant.org/xhab/