NASA Selects Five Universities For 2013 X-Hab Innovation Challenge

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington                                         

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

 

Brandi Dean

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov

 

WASHINGTON -- Five universities have been selected to participate in the 2013 Exploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge led by NASA and the National Space Grant Foundation. These universities will design habitat systems, concepts and technologies that could be used in future deep space habitats.

The selection is the first milestone in a year-long process for these five teams. Throughout the 2012-2013 academic year, the teams will meet a series of milestones to design, manufacture, assemble and test their systems and concepts in cooperation with the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Program's Habitation Systems Project team.

"The X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge is an exciting opportunity to engage university teams in the design process for NASA's next generation space systems," said Jason Crusan, NASA's AES Program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The agency benefits from the fresh and innovative perspective of these university teams, and they learn about deep space human exploration and the systems engineering approach from an experienced NASA team."

The challenge is a university-level participatory exploration effort designed to encourage studies in spaceflight-related disciplines. The challenge encourages multidisciplinary approaches, further outreach efforts and partnering with experts and industry. This design challenge requires undergraduate students to explore NASA's work on development of deep space habitats while also helping the agency gather new ideas to complement its current research and development. NASA selected these five teams from among a group of proposals received in May 2012.

The X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge 2013 teams are:

- California State Polytechnic University, Ponoma: Vertical Habitability Layout and Fabrication Studies

- Oklahoma State University: Deep Space Habitat, Horizontal Habitability Layout Studies

- Texas A&M University: Wireless Smart Plug for DC Power

- University of Alabama in Huntsville: Design and Development of a Microgravity Random Access Stowage and Rack System

- University of Colorado at Boulder: Remote Plant Food Production Capability

The National Space Grant Foundation will fund design costs, development and delivery of the systems to the AES Habitat Systems team during the summer of 2013.

NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate's Advanced Exploration Systems Program, via the Habitat Systems Project team, is sponsoring the technology challenge. NASA is dedicated to supporting research that enables sustained and affordable human and robotic exploration. This educational challenge contributes to the agency's efforts to train and develop a highly skilled scientific, engineering and technical workforce for the future.

For information about competition registration and requirements, visit http://www.spacegrant.org/xhab.

For more information about the Advanced Exploration System Program Habitation Systems Project team, visit http://go.nasa.gov/L37Ymq.

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NASA Calls for Student-Designed Deep Space Habitat Proposals

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Brandi Dean

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- NASA is offering college and university students a chance to help design a deep space habitat. The Exploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge is accepting applications for the 2013 challenge, inviting students to design, manufacture, assemble and test systems for use on NASA's deep space habitat prototype.

Past projects have included an inflatable loft for crew sleeping quarters, plant growth systems and sample handling tools. This year, students in multiple disciplines can choose projects from a variety of possibilities, including photovoltaic solar arrays, a workstation to support human-robotic collaboration or a telepresence and holodeck conceptual system. Students will work together on potential solutions to needs future astronauts might have living and working outside Earth.

"Students will play a vital role in our critical early system planning and development," said Alvin Drew, a NASA astronaut and habitat systems project manager at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Their designs could become the basis for the concepts and technologies that will make up the habitat we eventually send to space."

The X-Hab Challenge is part of a continuing effort to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, and provide a real-world challenge exposing them to engineering and design processes. NASA will directly benefit from the development of innovative habitation-related concepts and technologies that could be applied to future missions.

The challenge is run by the National Space Grant Foundation for the deep space habitat project team at Johnson, which is part of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Program. The goal of for the X-Hab Challenge is to help NASA inspire the STEM workforce of the future and the next generation of explorers. Winners will receive between $10,000 and $49,000 to produce functional products based on their designs. Proposals are due May 2, 2012, and awardees should expect to deliver their product to Johnson in May or June 2013.

To learn more about the X-Hab Challenge, visit http://go.nasa.gov/x-hab.

To see the solicitation, project list and challenge timeline, visit http://spacegrant.org/xhab.

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