[ad_1]
NASA has announced a challenge for scientists and inventors to find ways to turn carbon dioxide into useful molecules such as glucose. If successful, this invention will help those who are willing to move to the red planet. To win the $ 1 million NASA CO2 Conversion Challenge, the team or individual must successfully demonstrate how gas can be used to create other compounds. The spacecraft has much less room for cargo and it becomes essential that the crew members prioritize the bare resources.
Astronauts have little time, water, and energy to replicate the process by which plants make sugar-based biomaterials, which is very easily possible on Earth. With the availability of carbon dioxide in abundance, NASA hopes that crew members can easily harvest in space. Carbon and oxygen, together with carbon dioxide, make up the molecular basis of sugars. In addition, glucose is the simplest way to metabolize sugar and, therefore, it is the most promising way to convert to energy. The registration data ends on January 24, 2019 and until February 28, interested candidates can send their applications.
The competition is divided into two segments, the first having a prize of $ 250,000 and the second worth $ 750,000. For the first phase, NASA will award up to $ 5,000 to five teams for plans of a physico-chemical way to turn carbon dioxide into glucose. In the second phase, you have to prove that the ideas are viable. Other rules for the second phase have not yet been declared up to now. The award-winning invention will also be useful on Earth because carbon dioxide is abundant on Earth and this approach can transform both waste and atmospheric carbon dioxide into resources at home.
Source link
