
SMELT team members at the 2023 BIG Idea Competition Forum in Cleveland, Ohio. From left: Craig Oluoch, Patrick Moore, Alex Baumgartle, Jack Pierce, James Connelly, Samuel Highfield, Marisa Tommarello, Aleksandra Radlińska, Sven Bilén, Colton Washburn. Credit: Jack Pierce
Penn State undergraduates win innovation award for lunar technology
January 29, 2024
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A team of undergraduate students in Penn State’s Student Space Programs Laboratory won the 2023 Innovation Award at NASA’s annual Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. The 2023 challenge was titled Lunar Forge: Producing Metal Products on the Moon. Penn State was one of seven university teams selected by NASA to develop their proposal, which was a microwave system to smelt metal on the moon. More information on the team’s winning entry can be found on the BIG Idea Challenge’s website.