NASA gives you chance to win $150,000: What is ‘Lunar Grounding Challenge’ and how can you participate?

How can we stop astronauts from building up dangerous static electricity on the Moon? To find a solution, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a crowdsourced initiative seeking innovative engineering ideas to address the problem. NASA calls it the "Lunar Grounding Challenge."

"This problem is severely compounded when entering lunar shadows and Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs). In these dark zones, the spacesuit can buildup a substantial negative potential due to a lack of ambient ion flux and the absence of photoelectron emission to balance ambient electron collection," NASA explains.

It added that the risk occurs when an astronaut returns to the spacecraft. "Because the lunar surface lacks a natural environmental mechanism to bleed the charge accumulated on spacesuit away, the astronaut may become a walking, high-voltage capacitor," the US space agency says.

It further explained that in the sunlit region, the stationary lander will hold slightly positive electrical potential. When a highly negatively-charged astronaut approaches the vehicle, the extreme voltage differential can trigger electrostatic discharge (an instantaneous electrical arc, or a spark) during physical contact.

"A rapid discharge from the astronaut to the lander risks degrading vital suit layers, damaging sensitive suit electronics, threatening the oxygen-rich environment inside the suit, and delivering dangerous electrical shocks to the crew," NASA says.

To find a solution to this problem, NASA is seeking innovative designs as part of the Lunar Grounding Challenge.

NASA has asked industry partners for ideas that can help an astronaut avoid "becoming a walking, high voltage capacitor", including issues such as an electrical arc that could damage spacesuits, spark fires in the oxygen atmosphere of a spacecraft, or create electrical shocks.

This challenge seeks innovative concepts for an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) mitigation solution to neutralise the astronaut in a safe and timely manner under this extreme charge differential before astronauts directly interact with the lander.

The solution must be less than 20-kg and dimensional and power constraints will be defined during challenge design.

The solution must support up to four Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) over 10 days being exposed to the lunar environment.

Moreover, the suspended lunar dust and heavy dust buildup on a suit in these environments significantly increase arcing lengths, allowing sparks to jump across larger gaps than they would in a clean vacuum.

"Therefore, the solution must aim to avoid a sudden arc that may come into contact with the outer pressure garment (suit) or the lander," the agency explained.

This Challenge has two phases: 1) Concept Design Submission and 2) Concept Refinement.

NASA did not release a target date in its press release for when the tech would be available for astronauts, but the agency is planning on a long-term moon base for astronaut missions that would be largely ready to go in the 2030s if schedules hold.

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