2015 eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge

In a continuing effort to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and provide a real-world challenge, exposing students to the engineering and design processes, the Advanced Exploration Systems Habitation Systems Deep Space Habitat Project team has begun accepting applications for the 2015 eXploration Habitat, or X-Hab Challenge.

Post-secondary students engaged in a variety of curricula will work together to create a solution to a need for living and working in space or on another celestial body. The winners of the challenge will receive between $10,000 and $20,000 to design and produce functional products of interest to the Deep Space Habitat project. 

Proposals are due April 30, 2014, and awardees should expect to deliver their product to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in May or June of 2015.

Proposals will be accepted from university faculty who are U.S. citizens and currently teach an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology accredited engineering senior or graduate design, industrial design or architecture curriculum at an accredited university in the U.S.

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 also are highly encouraged. 

For more information about the challenge, visit http://spacegrant.org/xhab/.

If you have any questions about the X-Hab Challenge, please email xhab@spacegrant.org.