The POT needs collective help for the waste cleaning and finding truly sustainable paths that allow get rid of them. It is estimated that send just half a kilo of cargo to the moon costs around €100,000.
For this reason, the US space agency offers prizes of up to US$3 million to those who choose to collaborate with the Luna Recycle Challenge. This call aims to bring innovative solutions for the waste management in external environmentsa very present problem.
The search is based on inventions to recycle material waste in deep space missions. In this sense, the proposed reward It will be given to those who achieve the development of technologies that can convert the garbage generated on Earthinto resources that can help future astronauts efficiently reuse the material they take to the moon.
The main objective is the waste transformation so that they become products that can be used for collaborate with scientific exploration and sustainability in the same wayin long-duration space missions.
As NASA expressed in a video promoting the competition: “Astronauts will have to make the most of everything they bring with them, ieven your trash“, he expressed. According to the space agency, this challenge focuses on non-biological and non-metabolic solid wastesuch as packaging, fabrics and structural elements.
What is the modality to participate?
The competition for US$3 million has a own modality. Thus, it is based on two main stages:
- First phase: ssimulations and prototypes
Here participants will be able to compete in two categories:
1. Digital twin: These are proposals for virtual simulations based on real data.
2.CPrototype construction: detailed design of the proposed technologies. This phase will grant u$s1,000,000 in prizes, distributed between the two categories.
- Second phase: functional prototypes
The projects that are most promising in the first stage will advance to this second stage, in which they will be developed functional prototypes based on initial designs.
Here The prize amounts to $2 million.. The deadline for the first phase is March 31, 2025, with winners announced in May.
The motto and objective of this measure
The main motto of this initiative is based on the rule of the three “Rs”, that is: “reduce, reuse and recycle”. pretend transcend those barriers that oppose sustainable developmenteven outside the limits of our planet.
The thing is that, beyond the Moon, the agency hopes that These technologies have applications both on Earth and in future missions to Marswhere the cost of transportation is even higher.
Source: Ambito
