{"id":236352,"date":"2026-06-19T15:42:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=236352"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:42:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:42:59","slug":"project-petal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/06\/19\/project-petal\/","title":{"rendered":"Students make space history with moon power grid"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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The team celebrates their Project PETAL forum presentation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Imagine moving into a brand-new neighborhood where the power grid hasn\u2019t been built yet. That\u2019s the challenge NASA<\/abbr> faces at the Moon\u2019s south pole, where astronauts must survive two weeks of darkness at a time. A team of students from University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa and UH<\/abbr> Hilo tackled that problem through a NASA<\/abbr> competition, developing Project PETAL, a self-building, nuclear-powered energy system designed to support future lunar missions.<\/p>\n

UH<\/abbr>\u2019s Project PETAL\u2014short for Power Energy Transfer Architecture for the Lunar Surface\u2014was created for NASA<\/abbr>‘s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts\u2013Academic Linkage (RASC-AL<\/abbr>) competition, which challenges university students to solve real engineering problems facing future space missions.<\/p>\n

“For this competition, we\u2019re actually the first team from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> in its 25-year history,” said Nathan Chong, a Waipahu High School graduate and UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa computer-engineering<\/a> freshman who led the team.<\/p>\n

Out of a national field, UH<\/abbr>\u2019s 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<\/abbr> and Dartmouth.<\/p>\n

Too heavy to launch: The battery problem<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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\u2014and that\u2019s what the RASC-AL<\/abbr> judges are looking for,” Chong said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Dress rehearsal for Mars<\/h2>\n

UH<\/abbr>\u2019s Project PETAL is designed for more than the Moon. The technologies could also work on Mars, allowing NASA<\/abbr> to test a reliable power system before sending humans there.<\/p>\n

Built across the islands<\/h2>\n

The project brought together students across multiple islands. UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa teams focused on power systems, while UH<\/abbr> Hilo students worked on sustainability. The groups met online weekly and hope to compete again next year.<\/p>\n

For more go to K\u016bkala N\u016bhou.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa and UH<\/abbr> Hilo students were finalists in a NASA<\/abbr> competition, creating innovative lunar energy solutions for space missions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":236363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[34,1788,14,9],"class_list":["post-236352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-astronomy","tag-computer-engineering","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t