The National Space Grant Foundation is pleased to announce the X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge. This program is a university level challenge designed to engage and retain students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The competition is intended to link with senior and graduate-level design curricula that emphasize hands-on design, research, development, and manufacture of functional prototypical subsystems that enable habitation-related functionality for space exploration missions. NASA will directly benefit from the challenge by sponsoring the development of innovative habitation-related concepts and technologies from universities, which will result in innovative ideas and solutions that could be applied to exploration habitats. The Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Deep Space Habitat (DSH) project will offer multiple X-Hab awards of $10K – $20K each to design and produce functional products of interest to the DSH project (see topic list) as proposed by university teams according to their interests and expertise. The prototypes produced by the university teams may be integrated onto an existing NASA-built operational habitat prototype (examples shown in Figure 1). X-Hab proposals will have a Notice of Intent and proposal phase, where down-selection will determine which projects will be funded. X-Hab university teams will either finalize their deliverables, or deliver their products in May-June 2014 to be integrated in the FY14 DSH habitat configuration. Universities may collaborate together on a Project Team.
The Foundation anticipates that approximately 3-6 awards will be made under this solicitation ranging between $10,000 and $20,000 each.
Eligibility
Proposals will be accepted from faculty who are U.S. citizens and currently teach an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredited engineering senior or graduate design, industrial design, or architecture curriculum teaming course at a university affiliated with the National Space Grant College (if applicable) and Fellowship Program, or other US accredited university. Multi-discipline, multi-departmental, and/or multi-institutional teaming collaborations are highly encouraged.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and other minority serving educational institutions are particularly encouraged to apply. Proposals from women, members of underrepresented minorities groups, and persons with disabilities are highly encouraged.
Important Dates and Information
Program website: http://spacegrant.org/xhab/
Notice of Intent Due: April 3, 2013
Technical Interchange Meeting: April 10, 2013
Proposals Due: May 1, 2013