EDWARDS, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA seeks to improve a variety of Earth and space-based capabilities, including detecting and tracking wildfires, identifying plumes of gas venting into Earth’s atmosphere, and precision tracking of small spacecraft positions in orbit. The NASA TechLeap Prize is helping to advance these types of technologies for space exploration and Earth observation.

The agency has named three winners in the first TechLeap Prize competition, Autonomous Observation Challenge No. 1. The proposed solutions will help rapidly advance small spacecraft technologies for autonomous observation of events on Earth and beyond, as well as improve communications and computing power in small spacecraft applications. The winning teams will each receive an initial $200,000 prize they can use to begin building their payloads for a later suborbital flight test.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under a grant from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, is running a public challenge to develop an obstacle avoidance sensor for a possible future Venus rover. The “Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover” challenge is seeking the public’s designs for a sensor that could be incorporated into the design concept.

$30K in Prizes for Improvements of Current Models to Provide Advance Warning of Geomagnetic Storms and Reduce Errors in Navigation Systems

Boulder, Colorado — December 15, 2020 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in partnership with the NASA Tournament Lab today announced its crowdsourcing challenge, “MagNet: Model the Geomagnetic Field”. The challenge, which is being implemented by DrivenData and HeroX, seeks to mitigate the impact of geomagnetic storms on navigation systems through improved forecasting by increasing the accuracy in real-time magnetic field modeling and reducing errors in the magnetic navigation systems. 

Crowdsourcing Competition Enters Second Phase with NASA Seeking Prototype Payloads, Offering $800K in Total Development Funds & Prizes

HOUSTON, October 15, 2020 (HeroX PR) — HeroX , the world’s leading platform for crowdsourced solutions, today launched the crowdsourcing competition “Honey I Built the NASA Payload, The
Sequel” on behalf of the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The challenge seeks to develop miniature payload prototypes that can be sent to the Moon to help fill gaps in lunar knowledge. Lunar resources are potentially abounding, and these prototypes can also help discover some of these key resources scientists think might be on the Moon.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Artemis astronauts exploring the Moon will use the most advanced space systems of the 21^st century – including some of the most basic home comforts, like a toilet. NASA is calling on the global community to help innovate space toilet concepts  through the Lunar Loo Challenge. 

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — 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 like the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover,  or  VIPER, 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.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Expedition 30 flight engineer, is pictured among stowage bags in the Harmony node of the International Space Station. The bags, containing trash and excessed equipment, will be transferred to the docked Progress 45 spacecraft for disposal. The unpiloted ISS Progress 45 supply vehicle is scheduled to undock from the space station on Jan. 24, 2011. (Credit: NASA)

By Leejay Lockhart
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA, in partnership with NineSigma, is seeking new ideas to facilitate recycling in space, through a crowdsourcing challenge as part of the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL). The Recycling in Space Challenge is an opportunity for the public to submit proposals for components capable of storing and transferring trash to a thermal processing unit.

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