News And Events

First-year students put innovation skills to the test – before classes begin

CSM 101 shares video summarizing the McNeil Center operation (Fall 2023)

 

NASA Entrepreneur 2023: Orbital Mining + Space Dust Research & Technologies

Thrilled to announce that the Front Range Team brought home the win at the Nasa Entrepreneur competition In this year’s Defense TechConnect in Washington DC! Represented by Ken Liang (Orbital Mining Corp) & Dr. Xu Wang (Space Dust Research & Technologies), the Colorado-based team proposed a simple demonstration payload to solve some glaring problems.

The focal point of our solution: Lunar Dust, a critically unsolved problem. The dust is sharp as knives and sticks to everything, leading to very quick catastrophic failures of electrical equipment, space suits, and mechanical joints. On top of that, there’s extreme cold, radiation, and vacuum conditions. Our solution, Lunar Anti-Dust Microgrid, will clean off the dust and prove the survivability of our power grid on the Moon in a 6U <10kg payload.

We’ll be improving and testing prototypes of our core components in the next year, so stay tuned for more demonstrations of this cutting-edge tech! And finally, heartfelt thanks to our sponsors, vendors, partners, and facilities for their collaborative efforts in bringing this achievement to fruition!

To the moon!