A Starry Night of Innovation: The Aqualunar Challenge Winners’ Event
We’re still riding high after the incredible Finalist Celebration and Winners’ Announcement.
The event for the first space challenge prize in British history – The Aqualunar Challenge – was held at the end of March 2025 at the prestigious Canada House in London. This landmark occasion marked the culmination of a 15-month journey to accelerate innovation in lunar water systems with real-world applications. The evening celebrated the achievements of the finalist and winning teams, whose work could contribute to the sustainable use of water in lunar habitats – and offer potential breakthroughs for tackling water challenges here on Earth.
If you couldn’t attend the event, scroll on and catch up on all the excitement of the evening, by reading our round-up and watching videos from the night.
Recap: What is the Aqualunar Challenge?
Launched in January 2024, the Aqualunar Challenge is a £1.2 million international prize designed to drive the creation of innovative technologies to make human habitation in space possible. The challenge called on innovators to devise ways to remove contaminants from lunar water buried beneath the Moon’s surface and purify it for drinking. The ambition? To not only support future space missions but also inspire novel water purification solutions here on Earth.
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. And so, The Aqualunar Challenge was launched.
The challenge presented innovators with a detailed Mission Scenario, outlining technical and operational criteria for proposed technologies. In total, 35 eligible applications were received. From these, 10 finalists were selected in June 2024. The winners were announced on 27 March 2025 at a celebratory event in London.
A star occasion
Held at Canada House, the event brought together all finalist teams, non-financial support partners, judges, accessors, Government officials, guests from the UK Space Agency – notably Jessica Fell, Head of International Relations at the UK Space Agency and Meganne Christian, UK Space Agency Reserve Astronaut and Chair of the Judging Panel – as well as other esteemed invitees from the space, water, and innovation sectors to celebrate the successes of all teams and, of course, congratulate the three winning teams – one grand prize winner and two runners-up.
A shining drinks reception under a starry-lit sky welcomed all guests – with networking and a brief opportunity for discussion before settling into formal proceedings. The event opened with a series of three-minute pitches given from each of the ten finalist teams – providing them with the opportunity to introduce themselves, their innovation, and how it will be a benefit to both the Moon and terrestrial applications here on Earth. This rapid format gave the audience a comprehensive overview of all the solutions developed, their potential applications, and each team’s intended next steps – from investment readiness to academic partnerships and deployment.
The presentations showcased a diverse range of technologies, including modular purification systems, electrolysis-based water recovery, and adaptive design solutions capable of functioning in low-gravity environments. The pitches also demonstrated the potential for broader applications on Earth – especially in off-grid or humanitarian settings where access to clean water is limited.
Fireside chat: The impact of challenge prizes in the space sector
After all the finalist teams had given their presentations, and a quick break, everyone was seated for a fantastic fireside panel discussion, exploring the impact of challenge prizes in the space sector. Chaired by Clelia Cothier from Challenge Works, the panel featured: Dr Meganne Christian, UK Space Agency Reserve Astronaut and Chair of the Aqualunar judging panel, Andy German, Co-founder, Space Professionals Partnership Ltd and Holly Jamieson, Executive Director, Challenge Works. Following brief introductions, the panel reflected on what made the Aqualunar Challenge distinctive in the context of space innovation funding.
Meganne Christian acknowledged the boldness of the initiative, describing it as “a leap of faith” for the UK Space Agency. She said it was a really refreshing and exciting approach with a mix of entrants, including academic institutions, family-led teams, start-ups, and established organisations from a variety of sectors. “A benefit of the challenge was that it allows creativity, because the challenge itself is both quite limited but quite broad. And those limitations allow you to be really creative”
Andy German reflected on the journey of the ten finalists, observing how evident their progress was between the initial application stage and the final presentations. “From the first sift of 35 entries to the ten finalist teams, it was clear just how far the teams had come. It was really quite impressive.” The technical growth, confidence and refinement in their approaches was really impressive,” he said. He also highlighted how the teams have also been very entrepreneurial in terms of the limited amount of funding they were given, but also very scientific.
Holly Jamieson emphasised the deliberate effort Challenge Works makes to lower the barrier to entry so that challenges are accessible to more individuals, small teams, and organisations who might not usually apply for traditional funding. She also noted how valuable it is to see early-stage ideas come to life in such a collaborative and supportive environment.
Announcing the winners
With anticipation building, the event reached its peak as Dr Meganne Christian announced the two runners-up and grand prize winner of the challenge.
Queen Mary University of London won the £50,000 second runner-up prize for AquaLunarPure, a system that turns melted lunar ice into supercritical water—a high-pressure, high-temperature state that removes all contaminants in a single step. The design uses direct heating and insulation for high energy efficiency compared to current technologies.
RedSpace Ltd, a father-and-sons team from Aldershot, took the £100,000 first runner-up prize for FRANK (Filtered Regolith Aqua Neutralisation Kit). It extracts and purifies water from heated lunar soil through a three-stage process: separating gases, filtering solids, and distilling methanol from water.
Naicker Scientific Ltd, based in Gloucestershire, claimed the £150,000 grand prize for its SonoChem System. Using microwave and ultrasonic technology, it creates millions of microbubbles in melted lunar ice. These bubbles generate intense heat and pressure, breaking down contaminants to produce clean water. Founder Lolan Naicker says: “If we can make it work on the Moon, we can make it work anywhere.”
Each of these innovations represents a bold step toward unlocking lunar water for space – and could have transformative impact on Earth.
Find out more about the winning teams here. And watch as they receive their awards in our video below.
Moon-themed celebration
Against a backdrop of creative touches – space- and moon-themed lighting and decor, food and drinks, and music – the evening concluded with a well-attended networking session, where finalists, partners, and guests continued discussions in a collaborative and celebratory way. The informal setting allowed for rich conversations across sectors, with attendees sharing insights, discussing future projects and forging potential collaborations.
It was, of course, a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the broader impacts of The Aqualunar Challenge. You can read more about these impacts in our final report, which summarises the activities and legacy of the UK track. Read it here.
The three winning teams will now receive targeted support to help scale their solutions. But the broader impact of the Challenge is already clear: a strong pipeline of emerging technologies and teams with the potential to contribute meaningfully to both lunar exploration and water resilience on Earth. Challenge Works extends sincere thanks to all participants, partners, assessors, and attendees who made this programme and event such a success.
We look forward to seeing how all the teams continue to develop their ideas – for space, and for Earth.
