NASA Selects Finalists for Lunar Dust Mitigation Challenge

Twelve university team finalists are set to compete in the Human Lander Challenge, a competition that focuses on finding solutions to the dust cloud problem besetting spacecraft during landings, NASA said.

The finalists include teams from the Colorado School of Mines, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Texas A&M University, Ohio Northern University, Texas State University, the College of New Jersey, University of California San Diego, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Michigan.

The HuLC finalists will spend the coming months developing concepts for managing lunar dust created by rocket engines. The dust poses a significant challenge to NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a long-term human presence on the moon, as it can potentially damage lunar habitats, scientific experiments and other critical infrastructure.

Each team will receive a $7,000 stipend to further develop their proposed dust mitigation concepts and will present their final designs at the HuLC Forum in Huntsville, Alabama, in June. A panel of NASA and industry experts will select the top three winners who will share a total prize of $18,000.