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By NASA
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 – to produce consumables and build structures in the future, which will make explorers more Earth-independent.
An ISRU process that NASA wants to learn more about is forging metals from lunar minerals to create structures and tools in the future. Through its 2023 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Lunar Forge Challenge, NASA sought innovative concepts from university students to design an ISRU metal production pipeline on the Moon. The year-and-a-half-long challenge, funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and Office of STEM Engagement, supports NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative in developing new approaches and novel technologies to pave the way for successful exploration on the surface of the Moon.
Finalist teams presented their research, designs, prototypes, and testing results to a panel of NASA and industry judges at a culminating forum on Nov. 16, in Cleveland, Ohio.
The University of Utah team, partnering with Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory, earned the Artemis Award, which represents top honors in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Their lunar forge project, Production of Steel from Lunar Regolith through Carbonyl Iron Refining (CIR), represents a promising avenue to extract iron from reduced lunar regolith and refine it into a high purity powder product in a two-stage process. The Artemis Award is given to the team whose concept has the best potential to contribute to and be integrated into an Artemis mission.
There were multiple times we came close to scrapping the concept, but each time we found the strength to go a little farther. Our small group was driven by a genuine belief in the concept and curiosity of what would happen. This honor has validated the perseverance, effort, and dedication of exploring an innovative and applied idea. Participating in this challenge has allowed us to gain a tremendous and unique experience in technical and collaboration skills. We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity and for the friends we made along the way!
Collin Andersen, Team Lead
University of Utah and Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory
The University of Utah team, partnering with Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory, earned the Artemis Award, which represents top honors in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Credit: National Institute of Aerospace Teams could select to address technologies needed along any point in the lunar metal production pipeline, including, but not limited to:
Metal detecting Metal refining Forming materials for additive manufacturing Testing and qualifying 3D printed infrastructure for use on the Moon In January, teams submitted proposal packages, from which seven finalists were selected in March 2023 for funding of up to $180,000, totaling nearly $1.1 million across all teams. The finalists then worked for nine months designing, developing, and demonstrating their concepts. The 2023 BIG Idea program concluded at its annual forum, where teams presented their results and answered questions from judges, followed by an interactive poster session. Experts from NASA and other aerospace companies evaluated the student concepts based on technical innovation, credibility, management, and teams’ verification testing. In addition to the presentation, the teams provided a technical paper and technical poster detailing their proposed metal production pipeline.
This was a fantastic experience for both the student and NASA participants. The university concepts for how to forge metal on the Moon were inspiring and resulted in diverse, novel approaches for the agency to consider, as well as an extensive learning experience for students. The BIG Idea Challenge proves time and time again that engaging the academic community in complex technology challenges is a worthwhile endeavor for everyone involved.
Niki werkheiser
Director of technology maturation within STMD
In addition to the top spot, several teams were recognized in other categories, including:
Edison Award: Missouri University of Science & Technology
Path-to-Flight Award: University of North Texas with Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Processes Institute at UNT; Enabled Engineering
Systems Engineering: Northwestern University with Wearifi, Inc.
Best Verification Demonstration: Colorado School of Mines
BIG Picture Award: Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Honeybee Robotics
Innovation Award: Pennsylvania State University with RFHIC & Jacobs Space Exploration Group
The 2023 BIG Idea Challenge is sponsored by NASA through a collaboration between STMD’s Game Changing Development program and the Office of STEM Engagement’s Space Grant project. The Challenge is managed by a partnership between the National Institute of Aerospace and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
Students from Northwestern University with Wearifi, Inc., winners of the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge System’s Engineering award.Credit: Northwestern University Colorado School of Mines team members are shown submerging the housing into a furnace holding simulated regolith melt > 1,300°C in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge.Credit: Colorado School of Mines An image of MIT’s floating zone furnace set up for the unbeneficiated small-scale experiment. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Missouri University of Science & Technology’s team members are shown working on their lunar forge project in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge.Credit: Missouri University of Science & Technology An image of furrowed soil created by ACRE’s plow in Northwestern’s BIG Idea Challenge project. Credit: Northwestern University Penn State University’s SMELT system is shown during experiments with 20-g samples during the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Credit: Penn State University Student from Missouri University of Science and Technology working on the team’s lunar forge project in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge.Credit: Missouri University of Science and Technology An overview image depicts how University of North Texas’s SIMPLE project works, in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Credit: University of North Texas Colorado School of Mines team members pouring regolith slag into tile sandcasting molds to review applicability for use as building products in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Credit: Colorado School of Mines An image of one step in the process of reducing anorthite to alumina in Missouri University of Science & Technology’s BIG Idea Challenge project. Credit: Missouri University of Science and Technology Penn State University’s SMELT system is shown during experiments with 20-g samples during the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Credit: Penn State University The University of Utah team, partnering with Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory, earned the Artemis Award, which represents top honors in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Pictured here with Dave Moore, Program Manager for NASA’s Game Changing Development program. Credit: Amy McCluskey, National Institute of Aerospace BIG Idea Challenge winners of the Best Verification Demonstration, Colorado School of MinesAmy McCluskey, National Institute of Aerospace 2023 BIG Idea Challenge winners of the BIG Picture Award, Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Honeybee Robotics Amy McCluskey, National Institute of Aerospace 2023 BIG Idea Challenge winners of the Edison Award, Missouri University of Science & TechnologyAmy McCluskey, National Institute of Aerospace 2023 BIG Idea Challenge winners of the Innovation Award, Pennsylvania State University with RFHIC & Jacobs Space Exploration GroupAmy McCluskey, National Institute of Aerospace 2023 BIG Idea Challenge winners of the Path to Flight Award, University of North Texas with Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Processes Institute at UNT; Enabled EngineeringCredit: Amy McCluskey, National Institute of Aerospace 2023 BIG Idea Challenge winners of the Systems Engineering Award, Northwestern University with Wearifi, Inc.Credit: Amy McCluskey, National Institute of Aerospace NASA sponsors the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge through its Game Changing Development program and the Office of STEM Engagement’s Space Grant project. The National Institute of Aerospace and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland managed the challenge for NASA.
Team presentations, technical papers, and digital posters are available on the BIG Idea website.
For full competition details, visit:
https://bigidea.nianet.org/2023-challenge/
NASA’s 2023 annual Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge asks college students to design technologies that will support a metal production pipeline on the Moon – from extracting metal from lunar minerals to creating structures and tools. NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
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By NASA
5 min read
Cube Quest Concludes: Wins, Lessons Learned from Centennial Challenge
Small satellites, called CubeSats, are shown secured inside NASA’s Orion stage adapter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 5, 2021. One of these CubeSats belonged to Team Miles, one of the three finalists in the Cube Quest Centennial Challenge. The ring-shaped stage adapter was connected to the Space Launch System’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, with the Orion spacecraft secured on top. The CubeSats’ mission was to detach from the stage adapter, then fly near and beyond the Moon to conduct a variety of science experiments and technology demonstrations to expand our knowledge of the lunar surface during the Artemis I mission.NASA/Cory Huston By Savannah Bullard
Artemis I launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 16, 2022, penning a new era of space exploration and inching the agency closer to sending the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface.
Aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket were 10 small satellites, no bigger than shoeboxes, whose goal was to detach and capably perform operations near and beyond the Moon. One of those satellites was a product of the Cube Quest Challenge, a NASA-led prize competition that asked citizen innovators to design, build, and deliver flight-qualified satellites called CubeSats that could perform its mission independently of the Artemis I mission.
Cube Quest is the agency’s first in-space public prize competition. Opened in 2015, the challenge began with four ground-based tournaments, which awarded almost $500,000 in prizes. Three finalists emerged from the ground competition with a ticket to hitch a ride aboard the SLS as a secondary payload – and win the rest of the competition’s $5 million prize purse, NASA’s largest-ever prize offering to date – in 2022.
Of the three finalists, Team Miles was the sole team to make the trip on Artemis I successfully. Shortly after a successful deployment in space, controllers detected downlink signals and processed them to confirm whether the CubeSat was operational. This remains the latest update for the Team Miles CubeSat.
“We’re still celebrating the many wins that were borne out of Cube Quest,” said Centennial Challenges Program Manager Denise Morris. “The intent of the challenge was to reward citizen inventors who successfully advance the CubeSat technologies needed for operations on the Moon and beyond, and I believe we accomplished this.”
Innovation rarely comes without error, but according to Challenge Manager Naveen Vetcha, who supports Centennial Challenges through Jacobs Space Exploration Group, even after everything goes as expected, there is no guarantee that scientists will reach their desired outcomes.
“Given the magnitude of what we can and do accomplish every day at NASA, it comes with the territory that not every test, proposal, or idea will come out with 100 percent success,” Vetcha said. “We have set ambitious goals, and challenging ourselves to change what’s possible will inevitably end with examples of not meeting our stretch goals. But, with each failure comes more opportunities and lessons to carry forward. In the end, our competitors created technologies that will enable affordable deep space CubeSats, which, to me, is a big win.”
Advancements in Commercial Space Research
Although Team Miles may have made it furthest in the Cube Quest Challenge, having launched its CubeSat as a secondary payload aboard Artemis I, the team continues to participate in the challenge long after launch.
“From Team Miles, Miles Space LLC was created and is still in business,” said Jan McKenna, Team Miles’ project manager and safety lead. “Miles Space is developing and selling the propulsion system designed for our craft to commercial aerospace companies, and we’ve expanded to be able to create hardware for communications along with our CubeSat developments.”
The next steps for Miles Space LLC include seeing through their active patent applications, establishing relationships with potential clients, and continuing to hunt for a connection with their flying CubeSat. Another finalist team, Cislunar Explorers, is currently focused on using their lessons learned to benefit the global small satellite community.
“I utilized the contacts I made through Cube Quest and the other Artemis Secondary Payloads for my thesis research,” said Aaron Zucherman, Cislunar Explorers’ project manager. “This has enabled me to find partnerships and consulting work with other universities and companies where I have shared my experiences learning the best ways to build interplanetary CubeSats.”
Inspiring a Generation of Space Scientists
This challenge featured teams from diverse educational and commercial backgrounds. Several team members credited the challenge as a catalyst in their graduate thesis or Ph.D. research, but one young innovator says Cube Quest completely redirected his entire career trajectory.
Project Selene team lead, Braden Oh, competed with his peers at La Cañada High School in La Cañada, California. Oh’s team eventually caught the attention of Kerri Cahoy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the designs were similar enough that Cahoy invited the two teams to merge. The exposure gained through this partnership was a powerful inspiration for Oh and his peers.
“I originally intended to apply to college as a computer science major, but my experiences in Cube Quest inspired me to study engineering instead,” Oh said. “I saw similar stories unfold for a number of my teammates; one eventually graduated from MIT and another now works for NASA.”
Cube Quest is managed out of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The competition is a part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges, which is housed at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Centennial Challenges is a part of NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Learn more about Cube Quest Facebook logo @NASAPrize @NASAPrize Instagram logo @NASAPrize Jonathan Deal
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
256-544-0034
jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 16, 2023 Related Terms
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By NASA
2 min read
NASA Selects Awardees for New Aviation Maintenance Challenge
NASA is addressing a key challenge for sustaining the future of aviation – the skills that will be needed by aviation maintenance technicians working on new kinds of aircraft with new technologies. NASA / Lillian Gipson / Getty Images NASA has selected three university-led teams for the first round of a new technical challenge pursuing innovative aviation maintenance practices.
These university teams will receive funding from NASA for a two-year research term exploring aviation maintenance challenges related to NASA’s strategic vision for aeronautics.
The awardees will research new maintenance techniques and procedures, as well as how aviation maintenance technical schools could amend or expand their activities to educate students on these new practices.
Their work will culminate in a final report outlining potential solutions for future aviation maintenance including new educational curricula, new standards and technologies, and other anticipated challenges associated with new types of aircraft such as drones, air taxis, or ultra-efficient airliners.
In the spirit of similar NASA awards, the university teams will engage students from multiple levels and include them in meaningful work and research. Not only will graduate and undergraduate students be included, but also students at aviation maintenance technical schools.
Each awardee must also collaborate with industry partners to best understand the needs of the aviation industry and maintenance ecosystem, as well as work with real-world technology.
“This new award expands NASA’s university research partnerships,” said Koushik Datta, manager for the University Innovation project overseeing the awards. “Now even more students, including those from aviation maintenance schools, can participate in NASA’s aeronautics research.”
The three teams and their topics are:
Clemson University
“Revolutionizing the Future of Aviation Maintenance: A Workforce Development Plan to Navigate the Complexities of a New Aviation Maintenance Ecosystem”
University of California, Davis
“Future Aviation Maintenance Technical Challenges for Electric and Hybrid-Powered Fixed Wing and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft”
Wichita State University
“Adoption of Transformative Technologies and Workforce Development for Maintenance and Repair of Advanced Air Mobility Airframe Structures”
Complete details on this award and other solicitations, such as what to include in a proposal and how to submit it, can be found on the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate solicitations page.
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By NASA
2 min read
NASA’s X-59 Goes from Green to Red, White, and Blue
Lockheed Martin NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft continues to make progress, most recently moving to the paint barn at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ facility in Palmdale, California.
The X-59’s paint scheme will include a mainly white body, a NASA “sonic blue” underside, and red accents on the wings. The paint doesn’t just add cosmetic value. It also serves a purpose – the paint helps to protect the aircraft from moisture and corrosion and includes key safety markings to assist with ground and flight operations.
The aircraft made the move to the paint barn on Nov. 14, 2023. Once it is painted, the team will take final measurements of its weight and exact shape to improve computer modeling.
“We are incredibly excited to reach this step in the mission. When the X-59 emerges from the paint barn with fresh paint and livery, I expect the moment to take my breath away because I’ll see our vision coming to life,” said Cathy Bahm, the low boom flight demonstrator project manager. “The year ahead will be a big one for the X-59, and it will be thrilling for the outside of the aircraft to finally match the spectacular mission ahead.”
The X-59 is an experimental aircraft designed to fly faster than the speed of sound while reducing the sound of the typical sonic boom to a sonic thump. The aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission. Through Quesst, NASA will fly the X-59 over several to-be-selected U.S. communities and gather data about people’s perceptions about the sound it makes. NASA will provide that data to regulators which could potentially adjust current rules that prohibit commercial supersonic flight over land.
Text Credit: Anya Shah, NASA
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By NASA
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate connects the public to the agency’s missions and explores creative possibilities for addressing the agency’s research and technology development needs through prizes, challenges, and crowdsourcing opportunities. These challenges bridge NASA’s institutional expertise with the ingenuity of industry experts, universities, and the public at large, resulting in collaborations that help advance space technology solutions. For many solvers, success doesn’t stop when the NASA challenge ends. Past participants have gone on to work with NASA in other ways and take their technology to new heights in the commercial sector.
CO2 Conversion Challenge (2020) – NASA’s Centennial Challenges has an impact far greater than just space travel – just ask Air Co., a Brooklyn-based company that competed and won a three-way tie in the CO2 Conversion Challenge, which ran from 2018 to 2021. Air Co. founders Gregory Constantine (left) and Stafford Sheehan (right) used their innovative idea, which originally existed to convert carbon dioxide into glucose, to create immediately usable hand sanitizer at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Image courtesy of Air Co. Commercializing Challenge-Supported CO2 Technology
Air Company of Brooklyn, New York, was one of three teams to win the final round of NASA’s CO2 Conversion Challenge, which concluded in August 2021. This challenge asked the public to develop ways to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), an abundant resource on Mars, into sugar, which could be used by astronauts to make products including plastics, adhesives, fuels, food, and medicine. Air Company received a $700,000 award in the final phase of the competition for its thermochemical sugar production. First, CO2 and hydrogen are combined to make methanol, then hydrogen is removed to turn methanol into formaldehyde. The third chemical reaction produces a simple sugar called D-glucose.
Since participating in the CO2 Conversion Challenge, Air Company has commercialized its CO2-converting technology in unique ways, producing hand sanitizer, fragrance oil, and even vodka. The CO2 used is sourced from biogenic emissions – mitigating emissions that are released into the atmosphere from ethanol fermentation facilities.1 The company has also gone on to compete in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge and developed a system and processes for turning air, water, electricity, and yeast into food. In May 2023, Air Company was named a winner in Phase 2 of the challenge, receiving a $150,000 prize from NASA and a chance to compete in Phase 3 for a grand prize of $750,000 from a total prize purse of up to $1.5 million.
Cross-Program Competitors Advance Lunar Power Solutions
Astrobotic Technology, a small business based in Pittsburgh, was named a grand prize winner of Phase 1 of NASA’s Watts on the Moon Challenge in May 2021. The company is no stranger to NASA – in fact, John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic, credits early NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding as “the lifeblood of the company,” starting with its first award in 2009. Astrobotic has also received funding from NASA’s Tipping Point program and was selected to deliver scientific and technology payloads to the Moon as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payloads Services (CLPS) initiative.
Having continuous power throughout the lunar day and night during missions on the surface of the Moon is an essential technology asset for long-term crew and scientific exploration. For the Watts on the Moon Challenge, teams were asked to submit ideas for up to three parts of a hypothetical mission scenario: generating power from a plant to harvest water and oxygen from a dark crater on the Moon’s South Pole. Astrobotic received the grand prize in response to the first part of the scenario, proposing a fleet of small rovers that transport power cables between the solar array power source and the rover that operates inside the crater. The team also received a prize for collaborating with Montreal startup Eternal Light Photonics Corp. for a wireless mobile power beaming solution.
According to Astrobotic, the prizes contribute to the company’s development of lunar surface power infrastructure.2 In August 2022, the company was selected by NASA to receive $6.2 million to help advance Vertical Solary Array Technology (VSAT) under the agency’s Game Changing Development program.3
Printing Homes for Extraterrestrial Lands and on Earth
In November 2022, small business ICON, based in Austin, Texas, received a $57.2 million contract from NASA to develop construction technologies that could support infrastructure such as landing pads, habitats, and roads on the Moon. This effort supports NASA’s Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies (MMPACT) project. Preceding this, the company participated in NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, which ran from 2015 to 2019. This challenge asked competitors to design, develop, and test several areas of 3D printing that could contribute to potential human shelter on Mars. ICON partnered with the Colorado School of Mines in Phase 3: Level 1 of the challenge. The team was named a top ten finalist for their digital representation of a house on Mars using building information modeling software tools.
The technology ICON initially developed through the NASA challenge has helped pave several paths for the company. In addition to designing extraterrestrial infrastructure, ICON also impacts global housing by constructing 3D printed homes on Earth. The company created the first 3D printed community of homes in Nacajuca, Mexico.4 Taking its challenge journey full circle, ICON has also released its own global architecture competition open to the public.
Global Participation Leads to Mini Rover Missions
Based in Budapest, Hungary, Puli Space Technologies is an example of the global collaboration that is possible through prize, challenge, and crowdsourcing opportunities. In 2020, the company participated in the Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload competition, which sought designs for miniature science instruments – about the size of a bar of soap – that could help scout the lunar surface, collecting key information about the Moon, its resources, and the environment. The challenge was sponsored by NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative to cultivate new ideas, spur innovation and enhance the development of capabilities for exploration of the lunar surface. The challenge received 132 entries from 29 countries. Puli Space won first prize in the first iteration of the challenge for its conceptual Puli Lunar Water Snooper (PLWS) to identify hydrogen and all hydrogen-bearing volatiles, like water-ice, on the Moon.
Following the challenge, NASA released Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload Challenge, the Sequel, a two-year challenge that asked teams to develop, build, and prototype their miniature rover payloads. Out of the 14 finalists from the original challenge, four teams were chosen to advance to stage 2 of the sequel challenge. As part of the challenge, NASA provided $675,000, which was split between the four teams to fund development. Puli Space placed second in the sequel challenge for developing PLWS. According to Puli Space CEO Tibor Pacher, the connections made in preparing for the challenge led to PLWS’s placement on at least two planned commercial Moon missions.5
Endnotes
[1] https://www.aircompany.com/
[2] https://www.astrobotic.com/astrobotic-wins-two-nasa-prizes-for-lunar-power-infrastructure/
[3] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/three-companies-to-help-nasa-advance-solar-array-technology-for-moon
[4] https://www.iconbuild.com/projects/3d-printed-homes-in-nacajuca-mexico-with-new-story
[5] https://lsic.jhuapl.edu/Resources/files/Newsletters/LSIC-Newsletter_2023_June_v4.pdf
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Last Updated Nov 07, 2023 Related Terms
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