NASA, Collaborators Announce a New Student Lunar Autonomy Challenge! 

Space is hard, but it’s not all hardware.  

The new Lunar Autonomy Challenge invites teams of students from U.S. colleges and universities to test their software development skills. Working entirely in virtual simulations of the Moon’s surface, teams will develop an autonomous agent using software that can accomplish pre-defined tasks without help from humans. These agents will be used to navigate a digital twin of NASA’s ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) and map specified locations in the digital environment. The IPEx is an autonomous mobility robot engineered to efficiently collect and transport lunar regolith, the loose rocky material on the Moon’s surface.     

Autonomous systems allow spacecraft, rovers, and robots to operate without relying on constant contact with astronauts or mission control. Before hardware is trusted to operate independently on location, which for Artemis missions includes the Moon, it must be tested virtually. High-fidelity virtual simulations allow NASA to anticipate and improve how systems, both software and hardware, will function in the physical world. Testing in virtual simulations also allows technologists to explore different mission scenarios, observe potential outcomes, and reduce risks. 

In the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, students will develop their knowledge of autonomous systems by working with the same simulation tools created in-house by Caterpillar Inc. of Irving, Texas, over decades of research and development. Teams will need to utilize the IPEx digital twin’s cameras and orientation sensors to accurately map surface elevation and identify obstacles. Like with real lunar missions, teams must also manage their energy usage and consider the Moon’s harsh terrain and low-light conditions. Through the competition, participants will learn more about autonomous robotic operation, surface mapping, localization, orientation, path planning, and hazard detection. 

Eligibility

Teams must be comprised of at least four undergraduate and/or graduate students and a faculty advisor at a U.S. college or university.

Challenge Timeline & Structure

The challenge will take place between November 2024 and May 2025 and will include both a qualifying round and a final round. Interested teams must apply by Thursday, Nov. 7.

• Round 1: Selected teams will develop and train their agent using provided virtual environments. Teams will have three opportunities to submit their agent to run in a qualification environment. For each submission, their agent will be scored based on performance.
  The top scoring teams will be invited to continue.

• Round 2: Teams will work to further refine the agents. Teams will have multiple opportunities in total to submit their agents to the competition environment. The top three teams will be named challenge winners.   

Challenge Guidelines

Interested teams should carefully review the Challenge Guidelines and the Lunar Autonomy Challenge site for more details, including proposal requirements, FAQs, and additional technical guidance. 

Prizes

The top three highest-scoring teams on the leaderboard in the finals will be awarded cash prizes: 

First Place: $10,000 

Second Place: $5,000 

Third Place: $3,000 

Application Submissions

Applications must be submitted to NASA STEM Gateway by Nov. 7, 2024.  
Learn more about the challenge: https://lunar-autonomy-challenge.jhuapl.edu

The Lunar Autonomy Challenge is a collaboration between NASA, The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Caterpillar Inc., and Embodied AI. APL is managing the challenge for NASA. 

Authored by: Stephanie Yeldell, Education Integration Lead
Space Technology Mission Directorate
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative

ISRU Pilot Excavator

Get Involved

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Stefanie Payne

Tissue Chips Accurately Model Organs in Space

The International Space Station offers a unique microgravity environment where cells outside the human body behave similarly to how they do inside the human body. Tissue chips are small devices containing living cells that mimic complex functions of specific human tissues and organs. Researchers can run experiments using tissue chips aboard space station to understand disease progression and provide faster and safer alternatives for preparing medicine for clinical trials.

Researchers placed engineered heart tissues on tissue chips sent to study how microgravity impacts cardiac functions in space. Data collected by the chips showed these heart tissues experienced impaired contractions, subcellular structural changes, and increased stress, which can lead to tissue damage and disease. Previous studies conducted on human subjects have displayed similar outcomes. In the future, engineered heart tissues could accurately model the effects of spaceflight on cardiac function.

Another investigation used muscle-on-a-chip technology to evaluate whether engineered muscle tissues can mimic the characteristics of reduced muscle regeneration in microgravity. Researchers found that engineered muscle-on-a-chip platforms are viable for studying muscle-related bioprocesses in space. In addition, samples treated with drugs known to stimulate muscle regeneration showed partial prevention of the effects of microgravity. These results demonstrate that muscle-on-chip can also be used to study and identify drugs that may prevent muscle decline in space and age-related muscle decline on Earth.

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Benefits to Humanity

Humans In Space

International Space Station

Space Station Research and Technology

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Andrea Lloyd

Station Science Top News: Oct. 4, 2024

Engineered heart tissues in space showed impairments that led to increased arrhythmias and loss of muscle strength, changes similar to cardiac aging. This finding suggests that the engineered tissues, essentially an automated heart-on-a-chip platform, can be used to study cardiac issues in space and aging-related cardiovascular disease on Earth.

Microgravity exposure is known to cause changes in cardiovascular function similar to those seen with aging on Earth. Engineered Heart Tissues assessed these changes using 3D cultured cardiac muscle tissue. The 3D cultures, grown with special scaffolds and derived from human cells, are better at reproducing the behavior of actual tissues than previous models. Results could support development of countermeasures for crew members on future long-duration space missions and development of drugs to treat cardiac diseases on Earth.

A space-based and an airborne imaging spectrometer together make it possible to attribute the source of methane and carbon dioxide plumes to specific sectors, such as oil and gas or agriculture. Methane and carbon dioxide emissions are primary drivers of human-caused climate change. This finding could improve greenhouse gas budget and inform mitigation strategies.

The space station’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument was designed to determine the type and distribution of minerals in the dust of Earth’s arid regions, but researchers found that EMIT data also can identify specific sources of methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The space-based instrument can identify emissions over large areas and provide repeat observations that reduce uncertainty. The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-3, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory instrument, can quantify smaller emissions sources. Combining these observations provides more information on emission sources.

Even short periods of higher relative humidity can increase growth of fungi in spacecraft dust and change the diversity of species present. This finding suggests that moisture conditions can predict changes in fungal growth and composition in spacecraft and space habitats, helping to protect astronaut health and structure integrity.

The space station contains a unique community of microbes, including many that reside in dust, much like in indoor environments on Earth. Aerosol Sampler collected airborne particles in the station’s cabin air, including dust, for examination on the ground. There are many potential sources of daily elevated moisture conditions on the space station and scientists need to understand how this affects the fungal and bacterial communities in spacecraft dust. The model described in the paper also could assess how other environmental factors such as microgravity and elevated carbon dioxide affect these microbes.

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Linda E. Grimm

NASA’s Earth Information Center at the Smithsonian

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, preview the agency’s new Earth Information Center exhibit on Monday, Oct. 8, 2024. This new exhibit is the Earth Information Center’s second physical location.

The exhibit at the Smithsonian includes a 32-foot-long, 12-foot-high video wall displaying Earth science data visualizations and videos, interpretive panels showing Earth’s connected systems, information on our changing world, and an overview of how NASA and the Smithsonian study our home planet. It opens to the public Tuesday, Oct. 8, and will remain on display through 2028.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Monika Luabeya