NASA is willing to part with some serious cash if you can solve this space problem

NASA is on the hunt for someone who can solve a particular problem in space and the agency is willing to part with some serious cash for it.

The competition run by the space agency offers $3 million which is up for grabs for anyone who can figure out how to improve the sustainability of longer term lunar missions.

However, there’s some specific criteria that you’ll need to meet if you’re thinking of applying.

NASA is looking for more sustainable plans for the lunar missions (Encyclopaedia Britannica/UIG via Getty Images)

In general, if you want to win a prize from NASA, you’ll need to meet these four points of criteria.

First of all, you must be either a US citizen or a permanent resident and over the age of 18.

Secondly, any organization must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the US.

The third factor is that any team must be made up of eligible individuals and any team leader must be a US citizen or permanent resident.

However, that’s not all – in order to compete, each individual must declare their nationality and no participant can be a citizen of a country on the NASA Export Control Program list of Designated Countries List Category II – which are countries that are determined by the Department of State to support terrorism.

While China isn’t on the list, NASA is prohibited from participating, collaborating, or coordinating bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned entity.

Although, team members who are citizens of China but not affiliated with a Chinese entity may be permitted to participate on a team.

The NASA competition offers a $3 million cash prize (peepo/Getty Images)

The LunaRecycle Challenge is a two-phase competition aimed at developing solutions for how to recycle waste on deep space missions – and it’s looking for people who can help with preparations.

It’s hoped that someone will be able to help the US agency come up with new ways to process different types of waste including food packaging, science experiment materials and old clothing.

There has been a lot of work already done to reduce the amount of trash produced in space but NASA say that this competition is a way for them to ‘prioritize technologies for recycling waste into usable products needed for off-planet science and exploration activities’.

The competition will be made up of two tracks – the prototype build track and the digital twin tracks – and applicants can enter into one or both of them.

The prototype build track focuses on designing and developing systems that can recycle waste on the moon, while the digital twin track is focussed on making a virtual replica of a system for recycling waste streams on the moon.

If you think you’re up to the challenge, you can apply here.