In the coming decade, NASA and the China National Space Agency (CNSA) will send the first astronaut crews to Mars. Unlike missions to the International Space Station (ISS) or the Moon, crewed missions to Mars present several unique challenges because of the distance and transit times involved. For instance, it is only practical to send missions to Mars when our two planets are closest to each other in their orbits (known as “Opposition“), which occurs every 26 months. Even then, it can take up to nine months for spacecraft to reach Mars, creating all kinds of logistics headaches.
On top of that, there’s the need for life support systems that will maintain a breathable atmosphere inside the spacecraft. Like the system that allows astronauts to live aboard the ISS for extended periods, methods are needed to scrub waste carbon from the air and safely sequester it. HeroX, the world’s leading platform for crowdsourced solutions, has launched the NASA Particle Partition Challenge. With a total prize purse of $45,000, this competition is looking for innovative ideas on how to ensure that astronauts can breathe comfortably on the way to Mars!
Continue reading “Clearing the Air on a Trip to Mars: the NASA Particle Partition Challenge!”