NASA has chosen four teams to advance to the final stage of the Watts on the Moon Challenge, a competition aimed at finding solutions for transmitting and storing energy on the lunar surface. The challenge is part of NASA’s efforts to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and beyond.
The winning teams will receive $400,000 each and will move on to Phase 2, Level 3 of the challenge. The teams were selected based on their innovative technologies and solutions for addressing the complex challenge of providing power on the Moon.
One of the teams, Electric Moon from Ohio State University, demonstrated their solution by laying out a 6-kilometer cable in an open field and successfully transmitting power through it. They plan to use this model, combined with modular, multilevel power conversion, to transmit energy across the lunar surface.
The team from the University of California, Santa Barbara designed a solution that can operate within a wide temperature range, allowing for power distribution and energy management throughout lunar days and nights. Their goal is to optimize efficiency by reducing unnecessary weight.
The team from Michigan Technological University developed a power management system called TEMPEST, which uses adapted rovers to navigate the lunar terrain and deliver power via a battery system. They won the Artemis Award in a previous NASA competition and have further refined their proposal.
The team from Orbital Mining Corporation is working on a DC-to-DC converter system that can withstand the cold darkness of a sunless lunar night. Their high-voltage system operates using a direct current wired transmission system and a lithium-ion battery bank.
Each team’s technology was evaluated by subject matter experts from government and industry, including the Department of Energy. NASA sent observers to validate data and assess performance at each team’s site. The teams will now test their prototypes in a simulated lunar environment in 2024, where they will be placed inside a vacuum chamber that mimics the conditions found at the permanently shadowed regions of the Lunar South Pole.
The top two teams in the final stage will split a prize purse of $1.5 million, bringing the total prizes for all phases of the challenge to $5 million. The Watts on the Moon Challenge is led by NASA’s Glenn Research Center and managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The challenge is part of NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate.
