NASA has launched a competition to create a night landing system on the Moon.According to the results of the test, called Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge No. 1, the agency plans to pay prizes to three winners, amounting to a total of $650,000 each.
Participants will need to develop sensors capable of detecting danger from a height of at least 250 meters and process this information in flight. Sensors can be based on radar, lidar (laser “radar”) or other technology that allows you to create 3D maps of the dark area.
Registration will close by May 5, and complete applications must be submitted by May 19. NASA specifies that this technology will be used in the context of a long-term program to explore the Moon. It includes small private spacecraft landings and the Artemis mission, during which he plans to resume a return to the Moon and build long-range bases there.
NASA needs nocturnal landing technology because there are regions of eternal darkness at the moon’s poles: craters that are never illuminated by the sun. These craters can hold a lot of water ice, and to use this resource it is useful to land as close as possible.
