Imagine moving into a brand-new neighborhood where the power grid hasn’t been built yet. That’s the challenge NASA faces at the Moon’s south pole, where astronauts must survive two weeks of darkness at a time. A team of students from University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ and UH Hilo tackled that problem through a NASA competition, developing Project PETAL, a self-building, nuclear-powered energy system designed to support future lunar missions.

UH’s Project PETAL—short for Power Energy Transfer Architecture for the Lunar Surface—was created for NASA‘s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts–Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition, which challenges university students to solve real engineering problems facing future space missions.

“For this competition, we’re actually the first team from Â鶹´«Ã½ in its 25-year history,” said Nathan Chong, a Waipahu High School graduate and UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ freshman who led the team.

Out of a national field, UH’s Project PETAL advanced as one of just 14 finalist teams invited to present at the Competition Forum in Cocoa Beach, Florida going up against schools including MIT and Dartmouth.

Too heavy to launch: The battery problem

Instead of relying on massive batteries shipped from Earth, Project PETAL uses small nuclear reactors to generate continuous power on the Moon. Excess heat is stored underground in a vault made from lunar soil and delivered to astronauts through buried power lines.

“We had a very generic problem, but we came up with a solution that was so creative. We made something that no one has ever thought of—and that’s what the RASC-AL judges are looking for,” Chong said with a smile.

Dress rehearsal for Mars

UH’s Project PETAL is designed for more than the Moon. The technologies could also work on Mars, allowing NASA to test a reliable power system before sending humans there.

Built across the islands

The project brought together students across multiple islands. UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ teams focused on power systems, while UH Hilo students worked on sustainability. The groups met online weekly and hope to compete again next year.