HeroX is helping NASA explore hell by launching the “Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover”. They’re calling on the global community of solvers to develop the world’s first sensor to withstand Venus’ hellacious temperatures for an off-world planetary rover.
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Space Agency Crowdsources Sensor That Can Withstand Venus’ Inferno
Vancouver, BC — February 18, 2020 — HeroX, the leading crowdsourcing platform that solves global problems, today launched the crowdsourcing competition “Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover” on behalf of the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The challenge calls on the global community of solvers to develop the world’s first sensor to withstand Venus’ hellacious temperatures for an off-world planetary rover.
This is no simple feat – Venus is 842°F and the pressure is 92 times that of Earth. It is hot enough to turn lead into a puddle and the atmospheric pressure will crush a nuclear-powered submarine. No prior mission has lasted more than a couple of hours before succumbing to the relentlessly oppressive heat and pressure.
“How exciting for the public to design a component that could end up on another celestial body,” said Ryon Stewart, Open Innovation Development, NASA Johnson Space Center.
“We are very excited to work with NASA on another mission, this time to explore the landscape of our sister world, Venus,” said Christian Cotichini, CEO, HeroX. “Following the enormous success of the Space Poop Challenge, we are honored NASA continues to choose HeroX as their platform. NASA is showing the world how crowdsourcing, as an innovation strategy, is key.”
The Challenge: To explore the daunting surface of Venus, NASA needs an innovative obstacle avoidance sensor for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) mechanical clockwork rover, a research task led by Jonathan Sauder at JPL.
The winning sensor will be used in the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE) which is intended to spend months, not hours, exploring and collecting data about Venus’ landscape. The sensor will need to detect obstacles in its path like rocks, crevices, and steep terrain. NTL and JPL are using HeroX to reach the global community of innovators and inventors to design this groundbreaking sensor.
The Prize: The challenge offers up to $30,000 USD in prize money, in addition to the following opportunities: Public recognition at the 2020 NIAC Symposium and an invitation to visit JPL, including a tour of the Lab and a meeting with the challenge-owning engineering team to discuss the winning design and opportunities to collaborate with JPL to develop the mechanical sensor.
How to Become a Solver: The Prize is open to anyone aged 18 or older participating as an individual or as a team. Individual competitors and teams may originate from any country, as long as United States federal sanctions do not prohibit participation (some restrictions apply).
To accept the challenge, visit www.herox.com/VenusRover
ABOUT HEROX
HeroX is a social network for crowdsourcing innovation and human ingenuity, co-founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneur, Christian Cotichini and XPRIZE Founder and Futurist, Peter Diamandis. HeroX offers a turnkey, easy-to-use platform that supports anyone, anywhere, to solve everyday business and world challenges using the power of the crowd.
Explore the latest challenges at www.herox.com
Media Contact:
Alexandra Pony
press@herox.com
250.858.0656
Contact Info:
Name: Alexandra Pony, Press Relations
Email: Send Email
Organization: HeroX
Address: 1991 West 42nd Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6M 2B2, Canada
Phone: +1-250-858-0656
Website: http://www.herox.com
Source: PressCable
Release ID: 88946888
