PSTDL Advances to Final Round of NASA Watts on the Moon Challenge
![PSTLD researchers weld liquid nitrogen lines onto a custom thermal shroud](/news/2023/06/images/watts-welding-202211100037-banner1200.jpg)
Michigan Tech's Planetary Surface Technology Development Lab (PSTDL) is one of four teams advancing to the final round of NASA’s Watts on the Moon Challenge. All four teams received a $400,000 award and a chance to compete for a share of the competition’s grand prizes: $1 million for the winner and $500,000 for the runner-up.
In Phase 2, Level 3 of the challenge, the PSTDL team will get the chance to prove their design for a lunar power management system to NASA engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
"We’re thrilled that we get to go on to Level 3 and show off what our solution can do, because I think we have something that’s very promising,” said Paul van Susante (ME-EM), PSTDL leader. “We’d love to see the technology we design eventually go to the moon, and this is a great way to show NASA that it can perform well in lunar conditions.”
Read more about the PSTDL team’s most recent accomplishment at Michigan Tech News.