Tag: Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium

NASA Space Tech’s Favorite Place to Travel in 2025: The Moon!

NeRD

4 Min Read NASA Space Tech’s Favorite Place to Travel in 2025: The Moon! The first image from space of Firefly's Blue Ghost mission 1 lunar lander as it begins its 45-day transit period to the Moon. Credits: Firefly Aerospace NASA Space Technology has big travel plans for 2025, starting with a trip to the near side of the Moon! Among ten groundbreaking NASA science and technology demonstrations, two technologies are on a ride to survey lunar regolith – also known as “Moon dust” – to better understand surface interactions…

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Lunar Autonomy Challenge: Selected Teams

NeRD

Congratulations to the selected teams and their schools who will participate in the Lunar Autonomy Challenge! 31 teams were selected for the qualifying round, engaging 229 students from colleges and universities in 15 states. Teams will now move on to a Qualifying Round where they will virtually explore and map the lunar surface using a digital twin of NASA’s lunar mobility robot, the ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx). Teams will develop software that can perform set actions without human intervention, navigating the digital IPEx in the harsh, low-light conditions of the Moon. The Qualifying Round will extend to February 28, when…

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Student Teams to Help Fill the Inflatable Void with Latest Student Challenge  

NeRD

3 Min Read Student Teams to Help Fill the Inflatable Void with Latest Student Challenge   This year will be a “BIG” year for several college and university teams as they research, design, and demonstrate novel inflatable systems configured for future lunar operations through a NASA-sponsored engineering competition. NASA’s Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge asked student innovators to propose novel inflatable component and system concepts that could benefit future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond. The Inflatable Systems for Lunar Operations theme allowed teams to submit various…

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University of Utah takes top honors in BIG Idea Lunar Forge Challenge 

NeRD

A member of the winning team of NASA’s 2023’s BIG Idea Challenge working on their Lunar Forge project, Production of Steel from Lunar Regolith through Carbonyl Iron Refining (CIR). University of Utah Through Artemis, NASA plans to conduct long-duration human and robotic missions on the lunar surface in preparation for future crewed exploration of Mars. Expanding exploration capabilities requires a robust lunar infrastructure, including practical and cost-effective ways to construct a lunar base. One method is employing in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) – or the ability to use naturally occurring resources…

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