(MENAFN – IANS)
Washington, March 9 (IANS) As NASA aims to land the first and next female on the Moon by 2024, the group is looking to U.S. universities for lunar-focused research to achieve improvements in the use of on-site resources and sustainable energy solutions.
The U.S. space agency said Monday that it has selected six project proposals under its Lunar Surface Technology (LuSTR) survey application ever.
“Our first LuSTR opportunity focused on two areas of technology within NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative that are critical to the organisation’s Artemis program, which will land the first and next female on the air. Moon, “Walt Engelund, Associate Deputy Administrator for programming at NASA Space Technology. Mission Steering Group (STMD) said in a statement.
“The systems developed by U.S. universities could make the study of the future more accessible, robust and inspiring.”
Through LuSTR, NASA selected three university-led proposals to explore innovative ways to identify resources, such as water, on the Moon, and innovative design for extraction and use equipment.
The University of Texas at El Paso is studying an advanced thermal mining approach that could release, capture, and transport a water valve found on the Moon, NASA said.
Washington University will build in St. Louis drill mounted on a rover to measure 3D water circulation at the lunar South Pole.
Michigan Technological University in Houghton is adapting a turbulent cone penetrometer – an engineering device regularly used on Earth – to identify lunar soil strength, or regolith.
Understanding the strength of a lunar region regolith could inform methods of excavating water and building structures using local materials.
Contributing to this research, three other university teams will mature next-generation energy storage and circulation technologies.
The projects could help leverage in-situ resource utilization activity and other robust infrastructure on the Moon.
The University of California at Santa Barbara will study the feasibility of transferring wireless power from a base station to several distant assets on the Moon.
Vanderbilt University in Nashville will be looking at using silicon carbide power components for lunar surface applications.
Ohio State University in Columbus is studying flexible energy circulation between multiple, different power grids – which may use solar sources, a radioisotope, and a battery – that can be used on a surface the moon to support the Artemis program, NASA said.
–IANS
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