A local Waterloo water purifying company has been chosen as one of eight semi-finalists in a competition to invent lunar water purifying technology. The goal of the challenge is to invent low-energy water purifying technology for future visits to the moon.A Waterloo, Ont., water purifying company is inventing a way to extract and purify water on the moon.
Liang said extracting and purifying water on the moon can enable the growth of food on the moon and can be used to create rocket propellant."The hydrogen can be used for fuel sources and oxygen can be used to support life systems," Liang said. "We had an amazing response to this challenge and our jury really had their work cut out for them in selecting only eight teams to be selected as semifinalists," Harbers said.The first step of the challenge was to create a concept design. Applicants explained how their solution met the challenge objectives, mission scenario and judging criteria.Robert Liang standing next to a membrane water purification system.
The top four finalists will be chosen in the spring of 2025. Those four will then each receive a grant of $105,000 to submit and test their prototypes within a period of 10 months.The project is not unique to Canada, as the United Kingdom has a similar aqualunar challenge. Harbers said the Canadian semi-finalists and U.K. finalists will be allowed to collaborate.