Posted on 09/20/2017 3:02:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Detecting the presence of aerosols — which are tiny airborne particles that we can’t see but regularly breathe in — is vital to the health and wellbeing of long-haul space travelers. Determining the breathability and potential danger of any air source is of utmost importance, but current technologies that detect aerosols are too bulky to be considered for long space trips. NASA wants something smaller, but just as effective as today’s top-of-the-line tech.
“NASA has identified particulate monitoring as a gap in its technology roadmap to enable future long-term missions,” the competition page explains. “Current technology does not provide the level of sensitivity, the longevity, or the ability to operate in a reduced-gravity environment. The added bonus of this technology demonstration competition is the potential benefit to human health on Earth as well as in space.”
(Excerpt) Read more at bgr.com ...
A hundred thousand? fuhgeddaboudit! A hundred million and I’m on it like white on rice! (Oops, can I say that?)
No, but you can maybe say ‘Like white on cotton’
The solutions are trivial to design. I can think of three off hand. Sheesh. Won’t both submitting though because expect this (as in who gets paid) is already rigged.
Bother*
Really, what is $100,000? Today it’s less than peanuts for something like this. The other thing one would get is bragging rights, very expensive bragging rights, and the knowledge that you helped the USA astronauts. I wonder if there are other commercial applications and the inventor gets to keep the patent?
Maybe, but you better also serve some black-eyed peas as long as domestic violence was not involved.
Now that the EPA grant for anything has dried up, there is a long line of slackers at NASA.
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