1.10.2026
2027 CHALLENGE THEME: LUNAR COMMUNICATIONS
The Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) is an initiative supporting NASA’s efforts to explore innovative solutions for a variety of known technology development areas for human landing systems (HLS). As human exploration pushes beyond low Earth orbit toward sustained lunar presence missions and future missions to Mars, the role of lunar communications becomes increasingly vital. Designing for deep space is challenging due to mission duration, criticality, and extreme environmental conditions. Reliable lunar communications infrastructure is one area that must be tackled to ensure the safe and effective operation of human and non-human missions on the Moon. NASA invites collegiate student teams to explore innovations and potential solutions to lunar communications challenges and constraints. While the focus of the 2027 HuLC Competition is lunar and cislunar communications, the Moon serves as a proving ground for future human exploration of Mars.
Up to 12 teams will be selected to receive a $9,000 prize and advance to Phase 2, which includes a final design review at the HuLC Forum in Huntsville, Alabama in June 2027. Teams selected to advance to Phase 2 are responsible for developing a technical paper and poster and giving an in-person presentation to a panel of NASA and industry subject matter experts during the HuLC Forum. The overall top three placing teams will share a total prize purse of $18,000.
The 2027 HuLC competition invites teams to develop innovative, systems-level solutions to understand, establish, and optimize lunar communications systems for landers and surface operations that can be implemented within 3-5 years. Potential solutions areas include, but are not limited to, the following subtopics:
Hardware
- Space-Rated Wireless Networks and Electronics: Develop resilient wireless networking and communications technologies that enable seamless connectivity among astronauts, rovers, habitats, and landers in the harsh lunar environment.
- Antenna Signal Propagation, Modeling, and Environmental Mitigation: Design antenna systems and predictive models that improve communication reliability in the lunar environment by overcoming challenges posed by terrain, regolith, dust, and thermal extremes.
Software
- Data Efficiency and Link Optimization: Develop next-generation data compression, modulation, and communications architectures that maximize bandwidth efficiency, prioritize mission-critical information, and improve the reliability of Earth-Moon communications.
- Network Management and Scheduling: Design an intelligent network management solution that dynamically allocates limited ground station antennas and spacecraft radios, prioritizes mission-critical and emergency traffic, and efficiently supports dozens of cislunar users.
Architecture
- Surface Comm System Architecture: Design a scalable lunar surface communications network that uses relay nodes, redundant communication paths, and resilient mission operations capable of supporting an expanding lunar presence.
- Orbital Comm System Architecture: Design a scalable lunar relay satellite architecture that provides continuous or near-continuous communications coverage, connects lunar surface assets with Earth, and integrates orbital and surface networks into a resilient communications system that minimizes single points of failure.
NASA's Human Lander Challenge
NASA’s Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) is an initiative supporting its Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate’s (HSMD’s) efforts to explore innovative solutions for a variety of known Human Landing System (HLS) challenge areas. Through this competition, college students contribute to the advancement of HLS technologies, concepts, and approaches. Improvements in these technology areas have the potential to revolutionize NASA’s approach to space exploration, and contributions from the academic community are a valuable part of the journey to discovery.
Quelle: HuLC
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NASA Opens 2027 Human Lander Challenge for Lunar Communications
NASA’s 2027 Human Lander Challenge is seeking ideas from college and university students to help address one of the most critical needs for sustained lunar exploration: reliable communications.
As NASA prepares for long-term human presence on the Moon through the Artemis and Moon Base programs, communications systems will be just as important as spacecraft and rockets. A resilient communications system will connect astronauts, rovers, habitats, landers, mission support teams on Earth, and more. Reliable communications are essential for ensuring safety, coordinating complex operations, and enabling timely decision-making in the harsh and remote lunar environment.
“Reliable communications will be at the heart of our ability to explore and operate on the Moon,” said Jeremy Del Greco, Human Landing System program communications integration lead at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “As Artemis and Moon Base missions expand our presence beyond Earth, we will need dependable connections across the lunar surface and beyond. The 2027 Human Lander Challenge gives students the opportunity to help shape the communications capabilities of tomorrow and support future lunar exploration.”
The 2027 competition invites United States-based collegiate teams and their faculty advisers to develop innovative, systems-level solutions to better understand, establish, and optimize lunar communications for landers and surface operations that can be implemented within three to five years.
Teams should submit a non-binding notice of intent by Thursday, Oct. 15, if they would like to participate. Proposal packages, including a five to seven-page proposal and a two-minute video, are due March 4, 2027.
While teams may propose solutions outside of the focus areas, NASA has identified three main categories to advance future lunar communications capabilities:
- Hardware:
- Space-rated wireless networks and electronics
- Antenna signal propagation, modeling, and environmental mitigation
- Software:
- Data efficiency and link optimization
- Network management and scheduling
- Architecture
- Surface communications system architecture
- Orbital communications system architecture
Based on proposal package evaluations in phase 1, up to 12 finalist teams will be selected to receive $9,000 and advance to phase 2 of the competition, which includes a final design review in Huntsville, Alabama, home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, June 21–24, 2027. The top three teams from phase 2 will share a total prize of $18,000.
The Human Lander Challenge is administered by the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of the agency and supports NASA’s efforts to foster innovative solutions to a variety of areas for long-duration human spaceflight plans at the Moon. The Human Lander Challenge is sponsored by the agency’s Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate’s Human Landing System Program Office.
Through the Artemis program, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
Quelle: NASA