RedSpace Ltd Presents

The Aqualunar Challenge is part of a £1.2m international prize funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund and delivered by Challenge Works – experts in designing and running innovation challenge prizes. The challenge is a collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Impact Canada.

Around the lunar south pole, it’s estimated that 6.5% of the soil (regolith) is water frozen as ice. For a permanent crewed base on the moon to be possible, astronauts will need a reliable supply of water for drinking and growing food, as well as oxygen for air and hydrogen for fuel.

If the lunar ice can be successfully extracted, separated from the soil and purified, it makes NASA’s goal of establishing a base by the end of the decade viable. The Artemis campaign, as it is known, is supported by the UK Space Agency through its membership of the European Space Agency.