NASA has opened registration for the Human Lander Challenge, a competition encouraging college students to develop technologies that can mitigate lunar surface dust clouds during spacecraft landing and ascent.
The winning technology could be used in the Artemis mission to the Moon’s South Pole, the agency said Wednesday.
Lunar dust, technically known as plume surface interaction, is made of granular, rocky material that could cause safety risks and damage to NASA’s assets. The agency is also looking for techniques that could protect habitats, scientific experiments, mobility systems and other infrastructure from the dust, called regolith.
The first-ever Human Lander Challenge is seeking devices and methodologies such as dust shields, flight instrumentation, or approaches that enable visibility through plume surface interaction.
The space agency will grant funding to 12 teams for their technical papers and design models or prototypes. They will present their products in June 2024, in Huntsville, Alabama. The top three teams are set to receive corresponding monetary prizes.
Interested parties should submit their proposals by March 4, and their non-binding notice of intent by Oct. 22.