The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently launched a special challenge for everyone who wants to create innovative ideas about sustainable waste management.
The so-called "Waste to Base" campaign is looking for creative individuals who have interesting ideas to lessen trash, carbon dioxide, and other materials ahead of the upcoming Mars mission.
Waste to Base Challenge Submission
NASA, together with crowdsourcing site HeroX, announced the start of the "Waste to Base" challenge as part of the sustainability projects of the Red Planet exploration. The space agency is looking for people who have ideas about waste management.
According to the official website of HeroX, the challenge will tackle all possible ways of converting waste into base materials such as propellants. The organization wrote that they will integrate these methods together so that the upcoming spacecraft launch will only carry the lowest possible mass.
On top of that, HeroX also shared its ideas for waste conversion or management, which fall under four categories namely: Carbon dioxide (CO2) processing, trash, fecal waste, and foam packaging material.
Related Article: NASA's Curiosity Rover Picks up 'Unusual' Carbon on Mars-Is It a Sign of Ancient Life?
Final Date of Sustainability Management Ideas
According to Space.com, the challenge will welcome every interested participant until March 15. The total price will be $24,000 and some winners would receive $1,000 per head. The announcement of the winner/s will be on April 22.
"The challenge is looking for your ideas for how to convert different waste streams into the propellant, and into useful materials, that can then be made into needed things and cycled through multiple times. While a perfectly efficient cycle is unlikely, ideal solutions will result in little to no waste," the website wrote.
For the eligibility requirements among competitors, you can click this link for more details. To sum it up, the aspiring innovator should be 18 years old and above.
Moreover, a person can choose to compete by himself/herself or even join a team with other individuals. As long as their jurisdiction does not fall under the US federal sanctions, they are eligible to join the Mars sustainability mission.
HeroX also added that the novel concepts which will win the competition will be included in the whitepaper. They will be written in the roadmap for "future technology development work," as what NASA's logistics reduction project mentioned in its description.
No Final Date For NASA's Mars Flight
Currently, NASA has not yet announced the final date for the Mars mission. However, speculations pointed out that the space agency could initiate it in the next decade.
In the meantime, the space agency is focused on bringing astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis project. These programs will help NASA to shape possible design ideas for future Mars exploration.
Meanwhile, SpaceX Elon Musk lamented the idea of declining fertility rates. According to him, this would hinder his plans to build a Mars colony someday, per Tech Times.
At the same time, NASA is also facing a dilemma regarding the astronaut shortage for the upcoming lunar mission.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joseph Henry
