NASA CO2 conversion challenge, win prize of up to $1 million

New Delhi : The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA) have announced 'CO2 Conversion Challenge', a competition for general public who are in the field of technology. The US based space agency attempts to seek solutions from the public to design and develop technology that uses carbon dioxide to generate molecules that can be useful for future astronauts to tolerate the harsh atmosphere on Mars.

Details of NASA Conversion Challenge are mentioned on a dedicated website. As mentioned in the website, participants need to prepare solution by using both waste and atmospheric CO2 as a resource, which will also be implemented on Earth.

“Because CO2 is readily abundant within the Martian atmosphere, such technologies will translate into in-situ manufacturing of products to enable humans to live and thrive on the planet,” said NASA in a statement

“Enabling sustained human life on another planet will require a great deal of resources and we cannot possibly bring everything we will need. We have to get creative,” said Monsi Roman, manager of NASA's Centennial Challenges program.

“If we can transform an existing and plentiful resource like carbon dioxide into a variety of useful products, the space and terrestrial applications are endless,” Roman said.

The prestigious NASA competition will be held in two phases, with a total prize of up to $1 million. In the first phase, which is the concept challenge, five finalists will receive an award of $50,000 each which will be announced in April next year. In the second phase, the selected candidates would have to build and demonstrate their solutions. The most promising candidate will win up to $750,000.

Interested participants can register for the competition, which is open now. They have time till January 24, 2019 to sign up and February 28 to submit their entries.