HOMES:

The NASA BIG Idea Challenge is a national competition for university teams to rapidly prototype and test technologies for the NASA Artemis missions. In 2021, the Challenge was to design, build, and test novel dust mitigation technologies for use on the Moon. Our team developed HOMES, the Habitat Orientable and Modular Electrodynamic Shield.  HOMES is a modular set of panels that implements electrodynamic dust shielding technology. The novelty of HOMES is that its modularity enabled each panel to be attachable to each other in any desired configuration, allowed the user to create a dust-free workspace of customizable size. I designed and implemented verification procedures that validated our system to a Technology Readiness Level of 5.

We were named one of seven Finalists in this Challenge and were awarded $180,000 from NASA and the National Institute for Aerospace (NIA) to build and test HOMES. In October 2021, we were awarded the Best Product Development Award at the 2021 BIG Idea Forum.

HOMES Final Report and Poster submitted for the 2021 BIG Idea Forum