NASA is announcing final winners of the 2023 NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge, which focused this year on lunar exploration and climate science.
Entrepreneurs from across the United States came together at the Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit and Expo in Washington to pitch their ideas to a panel of NASA judges and venture experts. Winning organizations will be awarded an $85,000 grand prize for technologies that advance the agency’s science goals.
“Science and technology work hand in hand,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our science goals are advanced by creative new technologies, and challenges like this open doors to innovative ideas from entrepreneurs around the country. We are always looking for the brightest, cutting-edge ideas to help NASA move forward its visionary research regarding Earth, the Moon, and the entire universe.”
The 2023 NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge sought solutions in two areas: to provide ideas for lunar payloads that may attract non-governmental funding for delivery to the surface of the Moon by a commercial provider; and climate science to obtain high quality data from small, hosted instruments, as well as new business models for using existing climate data to address climate and environmental problems. Earlier this year, 11 challenge participants were selected as Round 1 winners, and received $16,000 each to advance to the final, second round of the challenge.
The Round 2 Winners are as follows:
- Visual-Inertial Position & Navigation for Moon by Skyline Nav AI
- Lunar Anti-Dust Microgrid Payload by Front Range
- Deep Detection of Methane in Satellite Data by GeoLabe
- Cislune Lunar Fuel Refinery and Exporter by Cislune
- Ringside Seats: Mote Lunar Landing Support System by Space Initiatives
- Robotic Utility Transmission Infrastructure by BlinkSpace
- PRISM: Personal RealTime Insight from Spatial Maps by Pegasus Intelligence and Space
In addition to the monetary prize, the challenge provided winners with exposure to external funders and investors, and offered insight into how entrepreneurs can work with NASA in the future. NASA emphasized reaching entrepreneurs from historically underrepresented communities.
To learn more about the award, visit:
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Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.fox@nasa.gov