In November 2023 Colorado School of Mines participated in NASA's BIG Idea Challenge. The 2023 BIG Idea Challenge gave students the chance to explore technologies and sciences that enabled the production of lunar infrastructure from metals found on the moon. The teams did not have to plot out the whole production, and were instead allowed to submit proposals for one or more steps in the process (NASA, 2023).聽
Mines' team won the award for Best Verification Demonstration for their Lunar Alloy Metal Production Plant (LAMPP). From their presentation poster, the LAMPP "is a self-contained, scalable, deployable metal production system designed for use in the lunar environment." Their verification test selected certain materials and tested if they could resist and contain a simulated lunar molten regolith. Corrosion, density loss, and microstructural fatigue were assessed.聽
For more information on last year's BIG Idea Challenge and its winners, head to .
