The Plant the Moon Challenge is for anyone daring enough to explore and stretch the limits of human possibility. We’re piggybacking off of NASA’s new lunar exploration program, Artemis, and giving YOU the chance to help get astronauts back to the moon.
NASA’s Artemis Program is the United States’ new initiative to return to the Moon. And future missions to the Moon will prepare astronauts for manned exploration of Mars! Artemis will explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. However, returning humans to the Moon and planning to go to Mars is challenging in many ways. One of those challenges is how to feed your crew. Using local resources on the Moon could greatly enhance our capabilities to explore our celestial neighborhood.
This begs us to ask the question, can you plant the Moon? Can we plant Mars? Can you grow crops in lunar regolith, a fine grained dusty covering of rocks and minerals spread across the surface of the moon? Can we grow food sustainably on the surface of Mars? What nutrients, fertilizers, or other modifications to the regolith are needed to grow nutrient rich, sustainable food sources for future astronauts?
Understanding how we can use lunar soil to grow crops is one of the next great steps in supporting our return to the Moon! Through the Plant the Moon and Plant Mars Challenge, you can help NASA scientists and the academic community at large learn the best crop conditions to make this happen. Register today to get started!
ICS makes learning an exciting challenge for students of all ages. For ICS, it’s not only about creating a tool for students, educators and innovators. It’s about creating academic heroes, and building the structures and systems upon which they can be recognized and rewarded. We aim to do for educational competitions what ESPN has done for professional sports, and much more. The Plant the Moon and Plant Mars Challenges are new signature competitions from ICS to help engage, inspire, and motivate students to learn through real-world challenge-based programming.
The Plant the Moon and Plant Mars Challenges were developed in collaboration with the University of Central Florida’s CLASS Exolith Laboratory. The Exolith lab is a not-for-profit extension of the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), dedicated to regolith simulant production and applied research. CLASS is at the intersection of NASA science and exploration for rocky, atmosphereless bodies. Simulants created at the CLASS Exolith lab are some of the most high-fidelity lunar, Martian, and small-body simulants produced today. Science at CLASS facilitates NASA exploration with new data and insights using their soil simulants.
The Plant the Moon and Plant Mars Challenges were developed in collaboration with the University of Central Florida’s CLASS Exolith Laboratory. The Exolith lab is a not-for-profit extension of the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), dedicated to regolith simulant production and applied research. CLASS is at the intersection of NASA science and exploration for rocky, atmosphereless bodies. Simulants created at the CLASS Exolith lab are some of the most high-fidelity lunar, Martian, and small-body simulants produced today. Science at CLASS facilitates NASA exploration with new data and insights using their soil simulants.
Recognizing that science and human exploration are mutually enabling, NASA created the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) to address basic and applied scientific questions fundamental to understanding the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids, the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and the near space environments of these target bodies. As a virtual institute, SSERVI funds investigators at a broad range of domestic institutions, bringing them together along with international partners via virtual technology to enable new scientific efforts.
The Plant the Moon and Plant Mars Challenges were developed in collaboration with the University of Central Florida’s CLASS Exolith Laboratory. The Exolith lab is a not-for-profit extension of the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), dedicated to regolith simulant production and applied research. CLASS is at the intersection of NASA science and exploration for rocky, atmosphereless bodies. Simulants created at the CLASS Exolith lab are some of the most high-fidelity lunar, Martian, and small-body simulants produced today. Science at CLASS facilitates NASA exploration with new data and insights using their soil simulants.
The Space Grant Consortium are educational institutions in the United States that comprise a network of fifty-two consortia formed for the purpose of outer space-related research. Each consortium is based in one of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, and each consists of multiple independent space-grant institutions, with one of the institutions acting as lead.
The Plant the Moon Challenge is currently supported by the Space Grant Consortiums of South Carolina, Florida, Minnesota, Idaho, Virginia, New Mexico, Illinois, California, Michigan, North Dakota, Iowa, and North Carolina.
Associate Professor
Florida Institute of Technology
Chief Innovation Officer
Nanoracks
Senior Scientist
NASA Ames Research Center
Lead for Innovation & Technical Partnerships
NASA SSERVI
Postdoctoral Researcher
Northern Arizona University
Chief Scientist, CLASS Exolith Lab
University of Central Florida
Assistant Professor of Botany
Winston-Salem State University
Aerospace Architectural Engineer
SEArch+
Space Crop Production Manager
NASA Kennedy Space Center
Chief Geomechanics Specialist
University of Central Florida
Associate Professor of Soil
University of Idaho