NASA’s Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) is an initiative supporting NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate’s (ESDMD’s) efforts to explore innovative solutions for a variety of known HLS challenge areas. Through this competition, college students become important partners in NASA’s 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. HuLC is open to undergraduate and graduate students at accredited colleges and universities in the United States. Minority Serving Institutions are encouraged to apply. HuLC projects allow students to incorporate their coursework into real aerospace design concepts and work together in a team environment. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.

In-space propulsion systems utilizing cryogenic liquids as propellants are necessary to achieve NASA’s exploration missions to the Moon, and later to Mars. In current state of the art (SOA) human scale, in-space propulsion vehicles, cryogenic liquids can be stored for several hours. In order for the planned HLS mission architecture to close, cryogenic liquids must be stored on-orbit on the order of several months.