Aqualunar Challenge

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We have found winning technologies that can purify water in one of the harshest environments known to humanity: the surface of the moon!

The Aqualunar Challenge was a £1.2m international challenge prize to drive the creation of innovative technologies to make human habitation in space possible by finding ways to purify water buried beneath the Moon’s surface.

This Challenge was delivered by Challenge Works on behalf of the UK Space Agency in the UK, and by the Canadian Space Agency in partnership with Impact Canada in Canada.

We are thrilled to announce that The Aqualunar Challenge has now been won. Two runners-up and one grand prize winner were announced on 27th March 2025 as the three successful teams – receiving a combined total of £300,000 to take their innovations further.

The three winning teams were selected from 10 finalist teams who received £30,000 of seed funding, as well as a plethora of non-financial support in June 2024, to help them refine their solution before they entered their final submission in January 2025.

Scroll down to meet the winning teams and find out more…

See the UK track here | See the Canadian track here

The winning teams

AquaLunarPure – 2nd runner-up

Supercritical Water Purification on the Moon – developed by Queen Mary University of London

A reactor would first heat lunar ice to leave behind dust and rock particles, then heat it to more than 373°C at 220 bars of pressure to turn it into “supercritical water” – not a solid, a liquid or a gas, but a fourth state that appears like a thick vapour – in which oxidation will remove all the contaminants in one step. Direct heating and insulation contribute to the high energy efficiency of this reactor, compared to current state of the art technologies.

FRANK – Filtered Regolith Aqua Neutralisation Kit – 1st runner-up

Developed by RedSpace Ltd, Aldershot/Cleethorpes/Richmond (North Yorkshire)

A three-stage approach designed to deliver a continuous flow of drinking-grade water in a lunar environment would first heat the lunar soil (regolith) sample in a sealed chamber to separate off volatile gases and leave a liquid of water, methanol and regolith fragments. The liquid is passed through a membrane to remove solid particles. The remaining liquid is distilled to separate the methanol from the water.

SonoChem System – Grand Prize Winner

Developed by Naicker Scientific Ltd, Gloucestershire

The SonoChem System employs a groundbreaking core technology to purify water derived from lunar ice. Harnessing powerful sound waves, it spontaneously forms millions of tiny bubbles in contaminated water. The extreme temperature and pressure created within each micro bubble generates free radicals (unstable atoms which are highly chemically reactive) which effectively removes contaminants.

AI generated image of a lunar lander equipped with solar panels and robotic arms operates alongside a connected module under a starry sky on the Moon's surface.

Why lunar water?

With humankind returning to the Moon later this decade, purifying the water that exists on the Moon in ice is critical to enabling more ambitious space missions. Using lunar water – as drinking water, to grow food, to create oxygen and to split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel – is a key enabler for supporting future deep space exploration.

Data suggests that large quantities of water may exist in permanently shadowed regions near the lunar south pole.

But this water is not pure, with a number of contaminants preventing its use unless it is purified.

And purifying that water in the Moon’s harsh environment – at low temperatures, using minimal power, and without easy human access – is tough.

As well as having applications for exploration of the Moon and beyond, technologies developed in the Aqualunar Challenge will have wide application here on Earth – wherever lightweight, robust, low-power water purification is needed