NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, is running a public prize competition to design miniaturized payloads for future Moon missions. The “Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload” challenge is seeking instrument designs that could help support a sustained human lunar presence, demonstrate and advance the use of resources found on the Moon, and enable new science. Future exploration of the Moon and beyond will require tools of all shapes and sizes – from sweeping orbiters to the tiniest of rovers. In addition to current planned scientific rovers, NASA could one day send even smaller rovers to help scout the Moon’s surface. These tiny robots would provide mission flexibility and collect key information about the lunar surface, its resources and the environment. The data collected by these rovers would be helpful for future lunar endeavors and NASA’s Artemis program.
Award: Phase 1 – $160,000 in prizes; Phase 2 – $800,000
Open Date: Phase 1 – April 9, 2020; Phase 2 – October 15, 2020
Close Date: Phase 1 – June 8, 2020; Phase 2 – February 23, 2022
Frequency: Once
For more information, visit: https://www.herox.com/NASApayload and https://www.herox.com/NASAPayload2