Editor’s note: This media advisory was upgraded Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, with a proper phone number for the media contact at NASA’s Glenn Research.
NASA’s Watts on the Moon Challenge, created to advance the country’s lunar expedition objectives under the Artemis project by challenging United States innovators to establish development power transmission and energy storage innovations that might allow long-duration Moon objectives, concludes on Friday, Sept. 20, at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland.
“For astronauts to preserve a continual existence on the Moon throughout Artemis objectives, they will require constant, trustworthy power,” stated Kim Krome-Sieja, acting program supervisor, Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “NASA has actually done comprehensive deal with power generation innovations. Now, we’re seeking to advance these innovations for long-distance power transmission and energy storage options that can hold up against the severe cold of the lunar environment.”
The innovations established through the Watts on the Moon Challenge were the very first power transmission and energy storage models to be evaluated by NASA in an environment that replicates the severe cold and weak air pressure of the lunar surface area, representing an initial step to preparing the innovations for future release on the Moon. Effective innovations from this difficulty objective to influence, for instance, brand-new methods for assisting batteries hold up against cold temperature levels and enhancing grid resiliency in remote areas in the world that deal with severe weather.
Media and the general public are welcomed to go to the grand ending innovation display and awards event for the $5 million, two-phase competitors. U.S. and global media thinking about covering the occasion must validate their participation with Lane Figueroa by 3 p.m. CDT Tuesday, Sept. 17, at: lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is offered online. Members of the general public might sign up as a participant by finishing this type, likewise by Friday, Sept. 17.
Throughout the last round of competitors, finalist groups improved their hardware and provided a complete system model for screening in simulated lunar conditions at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The test simulated a tough power system circumstance where there are 6 hours of solar daytime, 18 hours of darkness, and the user is 3 kilometers from the source of power.
“Watts on the Moon was a great competitors to judge since of its distinct objective circumstance,” stated Amy Kaminski, program executive, Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing, Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each group’s hardware was tested versus tough requirements and needed to carry out well within a lunar environment in our cutting edge thermal vacuum chambers at NASA Glenn.”
Each finalist group was scored based upon Total Effective System Mass (TESM), which identifies how the system operates in relation to its mass. At the awards event, NASA will award $1 million to the leading group who accomplishes the most affordable TESM rating, indicating that throughout screening, that group’s system produced the most effective output-to-mass ratio. The group with the 2nd least expensive mass will get $500,000.