NASA Awards $1.5 Million at Watts on the Moon Challenge Finale | Space

NASA has awarded a total of $1.5 million to two U.S. teams for their novel technology solutions addressing energy distribution, management, and storage as part of the agency’s Watts on the Moon Challenge. The innovations from this challenge aim to support NASA’s Artemis missions, which will establish long-term human presence on the Moon.

This two-phase competition has challenged U.S. innovators to develop breakthrough power transmission and energy storage technologies that could enable long-duration Moon missions to advance the nation’s lunar exploration goals. The final phase of the challenge concluded with a technology showcase and winners’ announcement ceremony Friday at Great Lakes Science Center, home of the visitor center for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

“Congratulations to the finalist teams for developing impactful power solutions in support of NASA’s goal to sustain human presence on the Moon,” said Kim Krome-Sieja, acting program manager for NASA Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “These technologies seek to improve our ability to explore and make discoveries in space and could have implications for improving power systems on Earth.”

The winning teams are:

• First prize ($1 million): H.E.L.P.S.  (High Efficiency Long-Range Power Solution) of Santa Barbara, California
• Second…