The winners of the Moon Supply Unloading System Design project announced by NASA

The first selection of the award, NASAGANTRY2020 ALLGO CS used a tripod structure on wheels. Credit: GrabCad / Christie S.

NASA has selected five 3D model submissions for the Advanced Lightweight Lunar Gantry for Operations (ALLGO) challenge. The ideas offer potential ways to dump supplies to the moon, something NASA is considering as it works towards sustainable exploration under the Artemis program.

The challenge supports NASA’s ALLGO feasibility study to develop an innovative lightweight portal system using inflatable components that can be tightly packed and easily deployed on the lunar surface. GrabCAD handled the challenge on behalf of NASA.

“Almost every proposal had innovative ideas, giving NASA a handbook for future concept development work,” said Kevin Kempton, the ALLGO studio and challenge manager at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “I am impressed with the results of the challenge and the collaboration within the GrabCAD community.”

The second prize design was noted for having a realistic design concept with good packaging and being mass efficient. Credit: GrabCad / Anouar Barodi

The presentations included templates showing the gantry designs in their operational setup and detailed descriptions of the packaging and distribution processes. Based on a review of 132 submissions, NASA selected 20 finalists and selected and ranked five winners based on the challenge scoring criteria.

• First Prize: NASAGANTRY2020 ALLGO CS by Christie S. from Nantes, France, the judges found the design credible and noted a clean and simple distribution concept
• Second Prize: ALLGO-GC by Anouar Barodi from Cuneo, Italy, the judges found the mass realistic and efficient design
• Third Prize: Archie by Jouni Huopana from Oulunsalo, Finland, the judges noted that the design is scalable and has redundancy
• Fourth Prize: Rabah Slimani’s Tetrahedral Inflated Trellis Stand from Algeria, the judges found the design solid and structurally effective
• Fifth Prize: ALLGO Tubecrane by Ben Marken from Canada, the judges noted the innovative three-tube design

“NASA will further evaluate these concepts and incorporate the best ideas into a low-cost prototype, allowing us to evaluate the comparison with more traditional designs that use a rigid structure,” said Kempton.

Illustration of NASA astronauts on the lunar south pole. Credit: NASA

As part of its 21st century lunar exploration program, NASA has proposed building an Artemis base camp at the lunar South Pole. Such a field would likely need systems for unloading and transporting cargo from landing zones located at a safe distance. The ALLGO challenge offered the public the opportunity to present their ideas of a mobile moon portal based on a structural structure of inflatable components as a computer-aided or CAD design model file.

The ALLGO concept study is funded by the Center Innovation Fund within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). The challenge was handled by NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes and Challenges program within STMD. The program supports the use of public competitions and crowdsourcing as tools to advance NASA’s research and development and other mission needs.

To see all the contributions, visit:

https://grabcad.com/challenges/nasa-challenge-an-advanced-lightweight-lunar-gantry-for-operations-allgo/entries