Red Planet Mars in the limelight – NASA announces results of its competition

#NASA #MarsMission #marsexploration With the intention of generating an interest in the Red Planet Mars among the commoners, NASA had announced a competition in September 2014 and its results have come out now as reported in zeenews.india.com dated 21February 2014.
The competition was the Mars Balance Mass Challenge in which NASA had asked for design ideas for small science and technology payloads that could provide dual purpose as ejectable balance masses on spacecraft that would be entering the Martian atmosphere.
There were a total of 219 submissions from 43 countries as revealed by NASA chief technologist David Miller and the first prize of $20,000 has been awarded to Texas-based Ted Ground. His idea was to study the Martian atmosphere by releasing material that could be seen and studied by other Martian spacecraft in orbit and on the ground.
Moreover, an honorable mention and a prize of $5,000 went to a team of engineers from Grand Rapids, Michigan – their idea was to study Martian weather by looking at wind patterns near the planet's surface.
NASA feels that the two winning ideas would pave the way for bringing to the forefront more such innovative ideas into Mars missions.
As George Tahu, program executive for Mars Exploration at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC has remarked – ‘we want citizens to join us on the journey to Mars’.
Incidentally, the submissions ranged from analyzing Martian weather or the Martian surface, to demonstrating new technologies such as 3D printing or parachutes, apart from pre-positioning supplies for future human missions on the planet's surface.