RASC-AL is a university-level, full mission architecture engineering design competition with new themes each year. RASC-AL competitions fuel innovation for aerospace systems concepts, analogs, and technology prototyping by bridging gaps through university engagement. The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate university-level students studying fields with applications to human space exploration (i.e., aerospace, bio-medical, electrical, and mechanical engineering; and life, physical, and computer sciences). RASC-AL projects allow students to incorporate their coursework into real aerospace design concepts and work together in a team environment. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.
Based on review of the team proposal and video submissions, up to fifteen teams will be selected to more fully develop their concepts and present them to a panel of NASA and industry judges in a competitive design review at the RASC-AL Forum.
Universities from the finalist teams will each receive a $6,000 stipend to facilitate their team's full participation in the RASC-AL Forum. The top two overall winning teams will be awarded with additional travel stipends to present their concept at an aerospace conference.
Through the RASC-AL Special Edition: Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge (MMIP), NASA will provide university-level engineering students with the opportunity to design and build prototype hardware that can extract water and assess subsurface density profiles from simulated lunar and Martian subsurface ice. Multiple teams will be chosen through a proposal and down-select process that assesses the teams’ concepts and progress throughout the year. Finalist teams receive $10,000 to build their prototype.
In addition to the test and validation portion of the project, teams will present their concepts in a technical poster session to a multi-disciplinary judging panel of scientists and engineers from NASA and industry. Poster presentations will be based on the team’s technical paper that details the concept’s “paths-to-flight” (how the design can be modified for use on an actual mission on the Moon or Mars). This includes, but is not limited to, considerations for temperature differences, power limitations, and atmospheric pressure differences.
The Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge is one of NASA’s premier engineering design competitions engaging universities in NASA's Mission to develop space exploration technologies for the Moon to Mars. Themes change each year.
Universities affiliated with their state's Space Grant Consortium (or partnered with an affiliated school) submit proposals to design, build, and test prototypes for the theme. This is an open innovation challenge with minimal constraints so that proposing teams can genuinely create and develop out-of-the-box solutions.
Up to 10 teams will be selected to build their proposed technology, and will be responsible for setting up and executing their own high-fidelity verification testing, based on what was described in the proposal. Teams are encouraged to be creative and design their own accurate and realistically simulated testing scenarios.
A wide range of award sizes is expected (in the range of $50,000 - $180,000), depending on the scope of the work proposed. It is anticipated that several larger-scope awards (typically $125,000 - $180,000) and several smaller-scope awards (typically $50,000 - $124,000) will receive funding. Proposers are encouraged to request what is actually needed to conduct the proposed work.
