The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invited university-level students to pitch a method to harvest water from the Moon, in an attempt to encourage innovations in science and technology. It has announced a contest with a $10,000 stipend for those shortlisted.
Teams will be expected to submit their prototype or proposed concept design till November 24, 2020. Out of the designs received, NASA will pick up to 10 teams which will be selected to build and test their systems. The teams are also supposed to detect and differentiate between the differences in functionality between using this mechanism on Earth and the Moon. All of them will receive $10,000 development stipend.
This new contest called the ‘2021 Moon to Mars Ice and Prospecting Challenge’ comes under NASA’s Artemis program. Under the Artemis program, astronauts will be searching for water on the south pole of the moon. It is unknown in which form they will find water.
Most expeditions require a lot of water for purposes like trying and grow plants and make rocket propellant with it in space. Since carrying it from the Earth is a cumbersome process, NASA is now looking to harness the water that was detected to be present on the Moon.