NASA is once again casting its net far and wide for ideas that will help it work out how humans can live in space. This week, the space agency put out a request for ideas for devices that will help it discover more about the moon.
While NASA already knows a lot about our closest neighbor in space, the open innovation call is to help fill gaps in its knowledge.
Specifically, it would like to know if any of the moon’s resources could be exploited for space travel, and whether aspects of the lunar environment – such as dust and radiation exposure – could be harmful to the human body.
NASA writes in its official request: “Information on lunar payloads that could be launched as early as 2017 would be valuable to NASA as it works to understand the potential role of the Moon in future exploration activities.”
All you need to do to take part is submit a proposal for a device that could go to the moon between 2017 and 2020 and that will shed light on NASA’s knowledge gaps. These are:
Submissions should be explained in fewer than 10 pages and the closing date is 4pm EST, December 9, 2016. Note that this is just a request for proposals at this stage; NASA isn’t planning to award contracts right at this moment.