Quiz for geniuses not even NASA can solve it. The problem of lunar dust is of great importance and arouses much debate.
NASA’s top experts are so perplexed by the lunar dust problem that they are willing to offer students 5,000 pounds (about 5,600 euros) to find a solution. In 2025, NASA will launch a new manned mission to the Moon, called Artemis III, which will be historic because it will include a woman among the astronauts. For this mission, new spacesuits have been designed that will allow the crew to survive longer than in the past. However, lunar dust poses a significant problem. To address it, NASA launched the Human Lander Challenge, seeking help in finding a solution.
Quiz for true geniuses: few can solve it
Ashley Korzun of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, said: “The Moon is covered in a granular, rocky material called regolith, which can be lifted from the surface by rocket engines during landing and takeoff. Understanding and mitigating these effects is a key challenge for NASA to ensure safe access to the lunar surface. Lunar dust, in addition to complicating landing, can also damage other resources that NASA intends to establish on the surface, such as habitats, mobility systems, scientific experiments and other critical infrastructure.”
The new competition is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students from US colleges and universities. Of the entrants, 12 teams will compete in a special event in June 2024, receiving around £5,000 to produce a “technical document and any associated design mockups or prototypes to present in a competitive design review to a NASA panel and experts in industry matter,” NASA told the DailyStar.
The winning team will receive around £8,000, second place £3,500 and third place £2,000. Lisa Watson-Morgan, human landing systems manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said: “Our goal is to have a lunar landing capability that allows astronauts to travel to the surface of the Moon and return safely on a regular basis. Managing dust kicked up by lunar landers is a top priority, so this is a great opportunity for students to collaborate with NASA.”
