Latest NASA challenge tackles Moon forging

NASA's eighth annual Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge invites university students to design a metal production pipeline – from extracting metal from minerals to creating structures and tools – for the Moon.

"Here at home, forging metal has long been a key part of building our homes and infrastructure, and the same holds true as we work towards a sustained presence on the Moon," said Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

The BIG Idea Challenge was started to engage students to tackle some of the most critical obstacles facing space exploration and to help create the mission capabilities that could make new discoveries possible.

This contest offers undergraduate and graduate students to work alongside faculty advisors to design, develop, and demonstrate their technology in a project-based program over the course of a year and a half.

BIG Idea Challenge finalists are awarded $180,000 to build and demonstrate their concept designs. Finalists of NASA's Lunar Forge Challenge will share the results of the research and testing of their BIG ideas for extracting and forging metals on the Moon at a culminating forum in November 2023.

Teams are invited to submit proposals for technologies needed along any point in the lunar metal product pipeline, including, but not limited to:

• Metal detecting.

• Metal refining.

• Forming materials for additive manufacturing.

• Testing and qualifying 3D printed infrastructure to be used on the Moon.

Drilling, excavation, and transportation of mined materials, however, are excluded from the Lunar Forge Challenge.

"This challenge gives students the opportunity to help develop the future technology that will help us find, process, and manufacture with metal on the lunar surface," Werkheiser said.

The ability to extract metal and build needed infrastructure on the Moon would especially benefit the Artemis program's goal of a sustained human presence on the lunar surface.

The ability to forge metals from the in-situ resources on our natural orbiting satellite would allow for the use of local additive manufacturing to produce items needed for a lunar base – including pipes, power cables, landing pads, transport rails, and pressure vessels to contain volatiles such as fuel.

A non-binding notice of intent to participate in the challenge is due by Sept. 30. Written proposals and video submissions in which teams must include a specific, compelling use case that describes how their portion of the metal product production pipeline fits into infrastructure development on the Moon are due by Jan. 23.

NASA says the teams should also identify what systems they assume will be in place to support their proposed concept, as well as consider incorporating mechanisms to enable efficient operation on the Moon, including lunar dust mitigation, thermal management, and realistic power considerations.

"NASA is already thinking about supporting longer-term missions to the Moon," said Tomas Gonzalez-Torres, Space Grant project manager in NASA's Office of STEM Engagement. "This BIG Idea Challenge theme links university teams to the push toward sustained human presence on the Moon and on other planets."

More information on the challenge can be read at: http://bigidea.nianet.org

"This theme goes beyond initial Artemis missions and starts tackling the mission planning needs once we've returned humans to the Moon," added Gonzalez-Torres. "We are excited to see what these teams develop."

In addition to NASA's challenge, an Australian-based university is endeavoring to develop metal foundry technology for the production of iron on Mars. You can read the details at Transforming Mars dirt into metallic iron in this week's edition of Metal Tech News.