NASA has challenged students across the United States to help design humanity’s first permanent home on the Moon, with $1 million in prize money up for grabs.
The space agency’s boss, Jared Isaacman, announced the Moon Base Student Challenge on Sunday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during NASA’s MAX POWER air show.
High school and university students can form teams and tackle one of six tricky problems, including how to generate power through the Moon’s long, dark nights, how to protect astronauts from its harsh surface, and how to move people and equipment around.
Teams will first submit their ideas, then refine them, with finalists getting the chance to present their solutions directly to NASA leaders and other experts.
“We are inviting students from across the country to help solve some of the problems that stand between humanity and a permanent presence on another world,” Isaacman said.
Interested students can register for the challenge until 25 January 2027.
NASA hopes the winning ideas could one day help it build a lasting Moon base, ahead of future missions even further out into space, to Mars. NASA’s Artemis programme is already working towards sending astronauts back to the Moon’s surface for the first time since 1972.
How would you design the Home? Send in a picture of your idea to [email protected]!
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