The Artemis program aims to land humans on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions accomplished it more than 50 years ago. Astronauts will land near the lunar south pole, a permanently shadowed region that would have areas of ice that could be accessed to support future missions to Mars. And, while it is not the first time, the NASA asks for help to develop navigation systems.
The Lunar Navigation Challenge seeks ideas for a low-tech backup navigation device that astronauts can use to find their way across the surface of the Moon, traveling to and from the lunar lander, along with Creative solutions to access and map the floor of Shackleton Craterwhich is approximately 21 kilometers in diameter and 4.2 km deep.
“The first Artemis missions will face many new challenges. One of them will be orientation at the lunar south pole, which is complicated by the extreme light and shadows of the Sun’s low elevation – explains the contest page -. These conditions make it difficult to It is more difficult for astronauts to orient themselves by line of sight alone when performing extravehicular activities (EVA)”.
Participation is open to both individuals and teams. Designs submitted for consideration must take into account the extreme environment of the lunar surface and ensure accuracy, ease of use (while wearing pressurized astronaut gloves) and autonomymeaning they cannot rely on internal power, electronics, or software.
Traversing and mapping Shackleton Crater, one of the largest regions on the Moon and one that is permanently shadowed, will be a special challenge due to the difficult topography (including steep crater walls, cliffs and large boulders), low temperatures, lack of magnetic field, extremely low atmospheric pressure and limited satellite data from the area or lines of sight to other celestial or orbital bodies.
HE will independently evaluate two sections of the challenge. Participants may select one or bothThe first of which (developing a low-tech orientation device) carries a prize of €15,000, while the second (developing a method to study and map the floor of Shackleton Crater) carries a prize of €30,000. An additional €5,000 will be distributed between solutions to both challenges that demonstrate exceptional achievement.
On October 2nd will be organized An informative webinar with NASA to answer questions about the challenge. Those who wish to attend can register for the event online. More information about the challenge and the official rules can also be found on the website.
All participants must complete an entry form for each challenge. Challenge proposals must be received by November 25, and winners will be announced on January 15, 2025.