The Aqualunar Challenge is 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 is being 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.
Ten finalists will receive £30k of seed funding in June 2024. Three grand prize winners will be announced in March 2025 winning a combined total of £300,000 to take their innovations further. There will be ample non-financial support as well, including:
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
The Aqualunar Challenge is calling on innovators, start-ups, scientists, academics, engineers and problem solvers to submit their ideas – whether they have worked in the space sector previously or not.
Innovators can enter the challenge any time between now and 14:00 GMT on 8 April 2024.
You can download the applicant guide here, which includes all the information you’ll need to apply for the challenge.
