NASA Awards Prize Money in Glove Competition

NASA’s latest prize competition, to improve the design of the gloves that are part of the pressure suits worn by astronauts on spacewalks, was held November 18-19, 2009 at the Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center, FL. According to media reports, $350,000 of the available $400,000 was awarded to first and second place finishers: Peter Homer won $250,000 and Ted Southern won $100,000. Homer also won in 2007 and started his own company to produce spacesuit gloves according to NASA’s Centennial Challenges website.

This is the fourth set of prizes NASA has awarded in the past several weeks. Masten Space Systems won $1,000,000 and Armadillo Aerospace won $350,000 in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge; LaserMotive won $900,000 in the Power Beaming Challenge; and three companies shared a $750,000 purse in the Regolith Excavation Challenge. The goal of the glove challenge is to promote the development of a highly dexterous and flexible glove that can be worn comfortably for extended periods. The glove challenge was conducted for NASA by Volanz Aerospace/Spaceflight America.