Moon to Mars Archives

April 24, 2023April 24, 2023 by Matt Williams

NASA Wants New Ideas for Launching Lunar Payloads and Unlocking Climate Science!

NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge 2023. Credit: HeroX

NASA has a long history of crowdsourcing solutions, seeking input from the public, entrepreneurs, and citizen scientists. Currently, the agency is tasked with preparing for the long-awaited return to the Moon (the Artemis Program) and addressing the growing problem of Climate Change. The former entails all manner of requirements, from launch vehicles and human-rated spacecraft to logistical concerns and payload services. The latter calls for advances in climate science, Earth observation, and high-quality data collection.

To enlist the help of entrepreneurs in addressing these challenges, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has once again teamed up with the world-leading crowdsourcing platform HeroX to launch the NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge. With a total prize purse of $1,000,000, NASA is looking for ideas to develop and commercialize state-of-the-art technology and data usage that advances lunar exploration and climate science. The challenge launched on April 10th and will run until November 29th, after which the winners will be invited to a live pitch event hosted at the Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit and Expo in Washington, D.C.

April 24, 2023July 11, 2023 by Matt Williams

NASA is Sending Humans Back to the Moon, But it Won't Stop There. Next Comes Mars

NASA recently announced the astronauts that will make up the Artemis II crew. This mission will see the four-person crew conduct a circumlunar flight, similar to what the uncrewed Artemis I mission performed, and return to Earth. This mission will pave the way for the long-awaited return to the Moon in 2025, where four astronauts will fly to the Moon, and two (“the first woman and first person of color“) will land on the surface using the Starship HLS. These missions are part of NASA’s plan to establish a program of “sustained lunar exploration and development.”

As NASA has emphasized for over a decade, the Artemis Program is part of their “Moon to Mars” mission architecture. On Tuesday, April 18th, NASA released the outcomes from its first Architecture Concept Review (ARC 2022), a robust analysis designed to align with its overall mission strategy and define the supporting architecture. This included an Architecture Document and an executive summary that provide a detailed picture of the mission architecture and design process, plus six supporting white papers that addressed some of the biggest questions regarding exploration and architecture.

January 18, 2022January 27, 2022 by Matt Williams

NASA and HeroX Want to Convert Waste in Space and Monitor Air-Quality Here on Earth

In the coming years, NASA will be making the long-awaited return to the Moon, where they will be joined by multiple space agencies and commercial partners. This will be followed by NASA and China sending the first crewed missions to Mars and other locations in deep space in the next decade. This presents numerous challenges, not the least of which involves providing for astronauts’ basic needs while in flight. In keeping with Dr. Sian Proctor’s motto, “solving for space solves for Earth,” dedicated to addressing air-quality problems and Climate Change here at home.

To help NASA address these problems, the leading crowdsourcing platform HeroX has launched two new incentive challenges. First, there’s the “Waste to Base Materials Challenge: Sustainable Reprocessing in Space,” which seeks innovative solutions for what to do about all the waste that’s generated during long-duration spaceflights. (human and otherwise). Second, there’s the “NASA Air-athon Challenge,” which is looking to foster high-resolution air quality information to improve public health and safety.