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Centennial Challenges Descriptions and Resources
Astronaut Glove | Beam Power | Lunar Lander | MoonROx | General Aviation Technology | Regolith Excavation | Tether Challenge
Astronaut Glove Challenge
The Astronaut Glove Challenge is designed to promote the development of
glove joint technology, resulting in a highly dexterous and flexible glove that
can be used by astronauts over long periods of time for space or planetary
surface excursions.
The Astronaut Glove Challenge will be conducted by Volanz
Aerospace/Spaceflight America in a format that brings all competitors to a
single location for a "head to head" competition. Each team will be required to
perform a variety of tasks with their gloves and will be scored on the glove
performance.
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Beam Power Challenge
The Beam Power Challenge is designed to promote the development of new
power distribution technologies. These technologies can be applied to many
aspects of space exploration, including surface- or space-based point-to-point
power transmission or delivery for robotic and/or human expeditions to
planetary surfaces. This challenge may also support the development of far-term
space infrastructure concepts such as space elevators and solar power
satellites.
Challenge Resources
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Lunar Lander Challenge
The Lunar Lander Challenge is designed to accelerate technology
developments supporting the commercial creation of a vehicle capable of
ferrying cargo or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar
surface. Such a vehicle would have direct application to NASA’s space
exploration goals as well as the personal spaceflight industry. Additionally,
the prize will help industry build new vehicles and develop the operational
capacity to operate quick turnaround vertical take-off, vertical landing
vehicles, which will be of significant use to many facets of the commercial
launch procurement market.
The complete Lunar Lander Challenge purse of $2,000,000 is divided into two levels: Level One, worth a total of $500,000, and Level Two, worth a total of $1,500,000. To win prize money in either level, a rocket-propelled vehicle with an assigned payload must take-off vertically, climb to a defined altitude, fly for a pre-determined amount of time, then land vertically on a target that is a fixed distance from the take-off point. After remaining at this location for a period of time, the vehicle must take-off, fly for the same amount of time, and land again on its original launch pad. The primary difference between the two levels will be in the time of flight, the surface terrain at the landing sites, and the corresponding degree of difficulty presented for precision landing and servicing of the vehicles.
Challenge Resources
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MoonROx Challenge
The MoonROx Challenge is designed to promote the development of processes
to extract oxygen from lunar regolith on the scale of a pilot plant. These
processes have the potential to contribute significantly to the Vision for
Space Exploration and space exploration operations.
The MoonROx Challenge is a "first to demonstrate" competition. The team whose
hardware can quickly extract breathable oxygen from a supply of lunar regolith
simulant using a steady-state process will win the competition.
Challenge Resources
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General Aviation Technology Challenge
The General Aviation Technology (GAT) Challenge is intended to bring about the development of new aviation technologies which can improve the community acceptance, efficiency, door-to-door speed, and safety of future air vehicles. The GAT Challenge is not intended to simply demonstrate the integration of existing technologies, but encourage the development of new technologies and breakthroughs which will enable new flight capabilities. As such, the GAT Challenge is comprised of a series of separate but inter-related flight competitions and each team must participate in all flight competitions in order to win any prizes.
Challenge Resources
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Regolith Excavation Challenge
The Regolith Excavation Challenge promotes the development of new
technologies to excavate lunar regolith. Excavation is a necessary first step
towards lunar resource utilization, and the unique physical properties of lunar
regolith make excavation a difficult technical challenge. Advances in lunar
regolith extraction have the potential to contribute significantly to the
nation's space exploration operations.
Teams competing in the Regolith Excavation Challenge will build
autonomously operating systems to excavate lunar regolith and deliver it to a
collector. This Challenge will be conducted in a "head-to-head" competition
format. Teams will be challenged to excavate and deliver as much regolith as
possible in 30 minutes.
Challenge Resources
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Tether Challenge
The purpose of the Tether Challenge is to develop very strong tether
material for use in various structural applications. The competition requires a
50% improvement in breaking force from year to year, starting with a
commercially available tether in 2005. Additional requirements (such as
operating temperature range, vacuum compatibility, and controlled electrical
conductivity) will be added in future years.
The Tether Challenge will be conducted in two rounds. The first round
will pit tethers from two teams directly against each other to determine the
team with the strongest tether. The second round will determine if the
first-round winner is at least 50% stronger than a house tether that represents
off-the-shelf materials. If it is, that team will win the competition.
Challenge Resources
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