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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.

    2019 BIG Idea Challenge

    Audience: Full-time Undergraduate and Graduate Students
    Entry Deadline: Jan. 6, 2019
    NASA’s 2019 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge is an engineering design contest open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students. This competition seeks innovations in the design and operation of a Mars Greenhouse. The Mars greenhouse should complement the unique design of the Mars Ice Home and adapt some of the innovative features for a “greenhouse” to help support a crew of 4 on a 600-day surface mission. Top teams present their concepts via a design review at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. Eligible students on teams that advance to the BIG Idea Forum will have the opportunity to compete for one of five NASA summer internship slots.
    More info here

     

    Recycling in Space: Waste Handling in a Microgravity Environment Challenge

    Audience: Individuals ages 18 and older
    Entry Deadline: Jan. 16, 2019

    On Earth, recycling technologies can utilize gravity to move waste when converting it to new materials or constituent molecules. In a microgravity environment, however, technology is the only way to transfer the waste for processing. The aim of this challenge is to identify receptacle and feeder mechanisms suitable for a microgravity environment that can deliver mission waste for decomposition. NASA plans to award $10,000 to the first-place winner and two $2,500 second prizes. Successful entrants may have the opportunity for future collaboration with NASA.
    More info here

     

    2019 RASC-AL Competition

    Audience: Full-time Undergraduate and Graduate Students
    Entry Deadline: Jan. 17, 2019

    The 2019 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts—Academic Linkages (RASC-AL) engineering design competition invites teams of university students to respond to one of 4 themes with creative ideas to improve our ability to access and explore cis-lunar space via the Gateway: 1. Gateway Logistics as a Science Platform, 2. Gateway-based Cis-lunar Tug, 3. Gateway-based Human Lunar Surface Access, 4. Gateway Uncrewed Utilization and Operations. Up to 14 teams will be chosen to participate in a competitive design review at the RASC-AL Forum in June 2019.
    More info here

     

     

     

     

    2019 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge

    Audience: 9-12 and Higher Education Educators and Students
    Entry Deadline: December 13, 2018 for International teams. January 17, 2019 for U.S. teams.

    Teams of high school and college students are challenged to design and build a human-powered vehicle to traverse the simulated surface of another world. The course includes 14 obstacles and five tasks, and teams must meet NASA specifications. The competition will be held April 12-13, 2019, in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
    More info here