“Back to the Moon” celebrates our return to lunar exploration. As Marshall Space Flight Center marks 65 years in 2025, we’re revisiting our original mission. What began with brief Moon visits is now advancing toward a permanent human presence, fundamentally changing our relationship with space exploration.
Going back to the Moon to stay presents real challenges. We need to reduce cargo shipments, mine lunar resources, protect against radiation and extreme temperatures, prevent damage from lunar dust, and land precisely while avoiding hazards. Solving these and other problems will advance technology for sustained lunar living.
Join our “Back to the Moon” challenge by submitting your innovative ideas as Amentum helps NASA overcome these obstacles. Your contribution could play a key role in humanity’s next chapter of space exploration.
Process
Interested teams will submit an Initial Proposal (up to three pages) describing their concept and projected results.
The top several cash prize eligible proposals will present via Video Conference with the winners being chosen from these finalists.
Eligibility:-
Cash prizes are limited to US Citizens only. However, there are no citizenship requirements for Honorable Mentions.
Employees of Amentum, NASA, and others who work on the Amentum Space Exploration Division (ASED) Engineering and Science Services Capability Augmentation (ESSCA) contract are not eligible to participate.
Guidelines
Amentum and its evaluation committee are solely responsible for the evaluation and selection of challenge winners.
The submitted ideas shall not contain classified, International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) or Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) data. Entrants must certify that all information used is taken from the public domain, generated by the team, or that the team has rights to any data utilized to prepare the proposal.
Entrants agree that Amentum shall have the right to publicize the award, including photographs, video, and brief summaries of the idea.
Awards:-
This challenge will award three cash prizes as shown below which will be paid to the designated captain of the winning teams; distribution among the team participants is the responsibility of the team captain. Taxes will not be withheld; any tax obligation will be the responsibility of the winning team members.
First Place: $5,000
Second Place: $3,000
Third Place: $2,000
Additional entries may be acknowledged in a non-cash Honorable Mention category. US Citizenship is not required for Honorable Mentions.
All team members for cash prize and Honorable Mention awards will receive a free Back to the Moon t-shirt if a US Mailing address can be provided.
Deadline:- 14-08-2025
