NASA opened up the registration process this week for its CubeSat Cube Quest Challenge, calling on competitors around the world to come up with the technology to enable small satellites -- or CubeSats -- to be used for deep space exploration in both scientific and commercial arenas.

For those who sign up to take part in this quest, NASA is offering a share of $5 million in prize money along with the chance for bragging rights in developing satellite technology that will be utilized and promoted by the space agency. Winning CubeSats will be utilized as secondary payloads on the first integrated flight of the agency's Orion spacecraft and Space launch System (SLS) rocket.

"Cube Quest is an important competition for the agency as well as the commercial space sector," Eric Eberly, deputy program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center said in a statement. "If we can produce capabilities usually associated with larger spacecraft in the much smaller platform of CubeSats, a dramatic improvement in the affordability of space missions will result, greatly increasing science and research possibilities."

Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, noted that this type of competition is multi-faceted in its opportunities. Not only will the competition engage the general public by offering individuals a rare chance at hands-on work toward deep space exploration, but that the challenge will also directly contribute to NASA's goals while simultaneously serving as a tool for open innovation.

According to NASA, the Cube Quest Challenge was designed in a bid to come up with and test subsystems that are necessary to perform deep space exploration "to the moon and beyond." The agency also notes that advancements in small spacecraft (namely, CubeSat) capabilities will undoubtedly provide benefits to future missions and may also enable completely new mission scenarios. An example of such a scenario would be investigations of near-Earth asteroids.

The specific challenges for this NASA quest include designing, building and delivering small, flight-qualified satellites that are capable of advanced operations near and beyond the moon. The challenge and prize money are to be divided into three major areas. These include: the Grand Tournaments; the Lunar Derby; and the Deep Space Derby.

NASA will host a total of four Grand Tournaments, which will be open to all teams and will be held every four-to-six months beginning some time in 2015. Teams that rate high on mission safety and probability of success at this level will receive incremental awards drawn from a $500,000 pot. Participation in the Grand Tournaments is necessary to move forward in the competition. Additionally, these tournaments that will determine who will be given the chance to hop aboard the first SLS flight.

Winners of the Grand Tournaments will go on to take part in the Lunar and/or Deep Space Derby. The Lunar Derby will focus primarily on propulsion for small spacecraft and near-Earth communications. The Deep Space Derby will focus on finding new solutions to deep space communications using small spacecrafts.

"These competitions will contribute to opening deep space exploration to non-government spacecraft," NASA said.

In terms of the winnings for these two competitions, the Lunar Derby prize purse contains $3 million and will be awarded to the CubeSat team who can demonstrate the ability for its spacecraft to be placed in a stable lunar orbit while also showing proof of communication capability and durability near the moon.

The Deep Space Derby will award $1.5 million to the innovators that can demonstrate communication and CubeSat durability at a distance greater than 2.5 million miles -- approximately 10 times the distance from Earth to the moon.

While the actual competitions won't take place until next year, up and coming astrophysicists and other intergalactic geniuses interested in partaking in this opportunity can now visit the official NASA Cube Quest website for access to additional information on the competition, including official rules, registration requirements and more.

Good luck, space cadets!

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