NASA gives you chance to win $150,000: What is ‘Lunar Grounding Challenge’ and how can you participate?

NASA has launched the Lunar Grounding Challenge, a crowdsourced initiative seeking innovative engineering ideas to address the problem of static electricity buildup on the Moon. The space agency is offering up to $150,000 in prizes to whoever wins the challenge. The issue is particularly concerning for astronauts landing at the lunar South Pole in 2028, as they could become a walking, high-voltage capacitor due to tribocharging and plasma charging from the lunar surface.

NASA aims to find a solution to prevent electrostatic discharge, which could damage spacesuits, spark fires in the oxygen atmosphere of a spacecraft, or create electrical shocks for the crew. The challenge asks for designs that can help an astronaut avoid becoming a walking, high-voltage capacitor, with constraints on mass, volume, and power impacts, and operability in the harsh lunar environment.

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