NASA is inviting undergraduate and graduate students to develop innovative proposals for its newest project, the Artemis program, through hosting the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concept - Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition.

The program aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 as well as preparing the way for human missions to Mars.

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The RASC-AL competition invites engineering students to design a proposal that pushes young minds to actively contribute to the real program needed to advance humanity’s pursuit of knowledge.

“RASC-AL provides an ideal platform for students to do this kind of meaningful, real-world research. It provides us with different perspectives that keep us on our toes and occasionally has us rethinking our approaches for exploring the wonders of space," said Patrick Troutman, human exploration strategic assessments lead at NASA's Langley Research Center, in a statement.

Unlike programs that have been launched before by NASA, the RASC-AL competition covers a broad range of themes, including the economic analysis of commercial opportunities in deep space on top of the usual science and engineering. There are five themes in total for the aerospace design concepts, which cover the designing of a lunar rover to explore the moon's south pole, the development of a Mars mission simulation and the planning of a short-crewed mission to the Red Planet's surface.

The deadline for the competition's proposal submission is March 5, 2020.

After the submission, 15 finalist teams will be selected and flown to the RASC-AL Forum in Cocoa Beach, Florida, in June. The teams will receive a US$6,000 allowance to participate in the forum. The final two teams will then present their design projects at a major aerospace conference, such as the annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SPACE Forum. (ran/kes)