2022 Extreme Terrain Mobility Challenge Deliverables

MID-PROJECT REPORT FORMATTING GUIDELINES

Mid-Project Report Submission Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on May 24, 2022

Prior to receiving the second stipend installment, each BIG Idea Challenge team must successfully pass a mid-project status review that demonstrates where they are in the development process. The purpose of the review is to provide the BIG Idea Challenge Judges with evidence that shows the team can perform the work identified in their concept proposal.

The Mid-Project Review (MPR) is a Pass/Fail review based on the submission of a 6-9 page report outlining the progress teams have made on the design, analysis, and development of their concept since it was first proposed. It should also convey whether you feel confident that you will be able to successfully complete the testing of your project as proposed.

Teams must pass this review to receive their 2nd stipend installment, which will come from the National Space Grant Project via the team’s state Space Grant Consortium. Failure to pass this review may lead to delays in receiving the stipend, or withdrawal of invitation to the competition.

MID-PROJECT REPORT FILES MUST INCLUDE:

• Cover Page (Excluded from page limitation)
• Project Title
• University name
• Full names of all team members, with Academic Level (graduate or undergraduate) and Major
  • Identify any foreign nationals
• Faculty/industry advisor's full name(s) and affiliation
• CAD Drawing/Photo/Image of your concept
• Summary (1 page maximum)
• An overall summary of the mobility innovation, including:
  • a brief synopsis of the operational scenario the proposed mobility technology is addressing
  • an overview of the proposed mobility solution
  • a review of the proposed system at the end of the project
  • a one paragraph statement on the proposed verification testing
  • a statement of the impact the innovative technology concept will have on lunar exploration goals.
• Body of Report (5 pages maximum)
• What has been done so far? Discuss progress made to date in research, building, and testing.
• What has been learned and if it modifies the original plan of work? Discuss any significant design and/or scope changes and the reasoning behind those changes.
• What work remains to be done?
  • Identify potential schedule risks and provide mitigation plans to help overcome them (including any schedule delays due to Covid-19 disruptions, if applicable).
  • Include team’s assessment of their ability to complete the project as proposed, on time.
• Any additional CAD drawings and/or photos of your concept
• Safety Plan (including building and testing hazards and planned mitigations, such as Personal Protective Equipment, if needed)
• Note: This requirement is simply meant to ensure that teams have carefully thought about safety in the execution of their concept development and testing. Each BIG Idea university is responsible for the safety of its students; neither NASA nor the National Institute of Aerospace accepts responsibility for any safety hazards as a result of the development of this technology.
• See “Additional Requirement” below for details on the Safety Letter each university must supply with their Mid-Project Report. The Safety Letter does not count toward the minimum/maximum page count.
• Risk Matrix (1 page maximum)
• The intent behind this requirement is get teams to acknowledge there are always risks and to think about them early in the development process.
• A Risk Matrix is a graphical representation of the Likelihood and Consequence scores of a risk. It is sometimes called a “5x5 Matrix” because it contains five rows and five columns. The rows of a Risk Matrix show likelihood scores, while the columns show the consequence scores. Each cell in a Risk Matrix can be represented by a Priority Score.
  • See NASA S3001: Guidelines for Risk Management
  • Risk Review & Matrix Template
• Note: sometimes, “Likelihood and Consequence” will be displayed as “Probability and Impact”



• Updated schedule/timeline of tasks and deliverables (1 page maximum)
• Cost incurred to-date: (1 page maximum)
  • Please provide an update on project expenses incurred to date. (Note that procurement delays generate more issues to challenge teams than any other source. Understand your university procurement processes and order custom parts as early as possible.)

Safety Letter: Teams will be required to submit a signed Safety Plan Letter, to be uploaded as a separate document on the online Mid-Project Submission form. (Please use the template Safety Plan Letter provided here).

Optional Augmentation Files: The online Mid-Project Submission form will also include fields for teams to upload video or other files they may want to share to augment their report. The augmentation files are optional.

GENERAL MID-PROJECT REPORT FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS

Teams are responsible for the formatting and appearance of their mid-project reports. Figures and tables must be placed in the file and therefore must be in digital format. 6 pages minimum; 9 pages maximum (including figures and tables)

• The Cover Page and Safety Letter do not count toward the minimum or maximum page limits.
• Reports should be single spaced and formatted as a single column
• Margins should be a standard 1” (2.54 cm) all the way around (top, bottom, left, and right).
• Please use fonts common to Macintosh and PC platforms, i.e., Times, Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Arial for text; Symbol for mathematical symbols and Greek letters.
• Font size can be either 11 or 12
• File size cannot exceed 90 MB.
• Mid-Project Reports must be submitted as PDF files.

MID-PROJECT REPORT EVALUATION

The judges will review each team’s report (and optional augmentation videos) to evaluate the team’s progress towards competition readiness. If there are any concerns regarding a team’s prototype or scheduled timeline, that team may be asked to conduct a follow-up “face-to-face” meeting with the judges via a virtual platform. At that point, the judges may request that improvements be made prior to moving the team to the next phase of the competition.

SUBMITTING THE MID-PROJECT REPORT

To upload your team’s Mid-Project Report and any optional augmentation files, please click on the button below.

No revisions can be accepted to your final Mid-Project submission, so please proof your files very carefully before submitting it. If there are any technical problems with the content of your paper or video file (for example, a file was corrupted), we will try to contact you immediately, so it is very important that you provide us with up-to-date contact information on the submission form.

Late submissions will not be accepted, and the submission form will close promptly at midnight.

TECHNICAL PAPER AND VERIFICATION TESTING DEMONSTRATION GUIDELINES

Technical Report and Verification Testing Demonstration Submission Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on October 24, 2022

TECHNICAL PAPER FORMATTING GUIDELINES:

• Papers should be single spaced and formatted as a single column
• Margins should be a standard 1” (2.54 cm) all the way around (top, bottom, left, and right).
• 15 pages minimum; 25 pages maximum
• The Cover Page, Table of Contents, and Quad Chart will not count toward the minimum or maximum page limits.
• References should be included as an appendix and will not count toward the minimum or maximum page limits.
  • Appendices are to be used for references, calculations, and explanatory figures (with captions) ONLY.
• Please use fonts common to Macintosh and PC platforms, i.e., Times, Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Arial for text; Symbol for mathematical symbols and Greek letters.
• Font size should be either 11 or 12 pt.
• Technical papers must be submitted as PDF files

TECHNICAL PAPERS MUST INCLUDE:

Teams will develop a 15-25 page technical paper that describes their concept. The technical paper must include the following sections:

• Cover page (Excluded from page count)
• University name
• University or industry partners, if any
• Project Title
• Full names of all team members, with Academic Level (graduate or undergraduate) and Major
  • Identify any foreign nationals
• Faculty/industry advisor’s full name(s) and affiliations
• Space Grant Affiliation
• Quad chart (Excluded from page count)
• Please use the BIG Idea Tech Paper Quad Chart Template.
• Quad charts must address:
  • Concept Synopsis
  • An Image/Graphic of the Concept
  • Innovations (Briefly describe how new innovative approaches / capabilities / technologies increase the State of the Art (SOA) for accessing extreme lunar terrain)
  • Verification Testing Results & Conclusions
• Executive summary
• An overall summary of the mobility innovation, including a title of the project, a one paragraph synopsis of the operational scenario the proposed technology is addressing, an overview of the proposed technology solution, a one paragraph statement on the proposed verification testing, and a statement of the impact the innovative technology concept will have on lunar exploration goals.
• Problem statement and background
• Mission Scenario/use case where the proposed mobility solution is needed (including commercial use cases, if applicable).
• Challenge being addressed and overall approach
• Project description
• Description of the concept
  • Describe in reasonable detail the concept lifecycle, including all design assumptions, and address development, testing, and implementation.
  • Please include visual (i.e., photos/CAD drawings) and written descriptions of any relevant parts or subsystems, where appropriate, as well as explanations behind your design decisions.
  • Include justification for any design changes/improvements made since the mid-project review.
• Technical Specifications
  • Overall mass, volume, etc. (include specifications for things like power requirements, processing requirements, bandwidth requirements, etc.)
• How does your concept integrate and operate with external lunar systems and what enabling systems are assumed?
• Identify specific potential stakeholders/funders (i.e., Exploration, Science, Commercial) who could benefit from project, and how they will benefit from your concept.
• Verification testing on Earth
• Describe your verification process. Teams must describe HOW their technology was demonstrated on Earth to provide confidence it can work in a lunar environment.
• Describe the key performance parameters based on the mission scenario being addressed.
• Describe what type of data was used or collected, and how it informed your solution.
• Describe any challenges you faced and how you mitigated them.
• What testing facilities (if any) were used?
• For the testing, how did you accomplish a realistic simulated environment? What aspects were considered from the DSNE?
• Did you consider the unique environments expected (temperature ranges, pressures, power resources, degraded communications, abrasive regolith, rugged terrain) that may include extremely soft soil, rocks, boulders, slopes, high contrast lighting, etc.
• Was there critical testing that could not be performed due to budget and schedule constraints?
• Safety plan and protocols followed
• Path-To-Flight
• A brief discussion on the concept’s anticipated path-to-flight for a lunar mission to the Moon by 2026, including rationale for trades and critical modifications that would need to be made to the design for use on the Moon.
• Present a path to implementation on the lunar surface:
  • What components need additional qualification?
  • What remaining design work needs to be done prior to building flight hardware?
• Discuss any plans/opportunities to continue concept development, if applicable.
• Results/Conclusions
• Did the verification testing indicate the proposed mobility solution can achieve the proposed objectives? (i.e., will your designed solution work as intended?)
• What were the key results of the tests?
• What conclusions are you able to draw about the problem and your design solution?
• Did the verification testing indicate that the proposed mobility solution be scaled for different mission scenarios?
• Detailed timeline, including development and verification testing
• Detailed budget, including all relevant expenditures
• Budget should be broken down by Phase 1 and Phase 2 funding awards
• Recognize all sponsors and/or grants
  • Report the total amount of funding received outside of the BIG Idea Challenge awards
  • Quantify any sponsorships and/or in-kind contributions to the best of your ability

VERIFICATION DEMONSTRATION FILES

Teams are required to provide some sort of visual demonstration of their verification testing results. This can be done via video, animation, modeling and simulation, etc. Modeling and simulation results are not a replacement for test results, but can be used to support the findings from hardware testing.

It is expected that the team’s presentation made during the Forum will incorporate an animated, simulated, or otherwise functional demonstration of their solution. Teams can showcase their solutions through a variety of visual and physical modalities, including but not limited to a modeling and simulation experience (including Virtual Reality), application software demonstration, slides, charts, graphic representations, video, animations, data visualizations, etc.

The online Technical Paper and Concept Demonstration submission form will include fields for teams to upload video or any other concept demonstration files.

SUBMITTING THE TECHNICAL PAPER AND VERIFICATION DEMONSTRATION FILES

To upload your team’s Technical Paper (.pdf file), please click on the button below.

No revisions can be accepted, so carefully review your Technical Paper file before submitting it. If there are any technical problems with the content of your paper (for example, your file was corrupted), we will try to contact you immediately, so it is very important that you provide us with up-to-date contact information on the submission form.

Late papers will not be accepted, and the submission form will close promptly at midnight. Teams are encouraged to review the Evaluation Criteria to better understand how they will be judged.

PRESENTATION FILES GUIDELINES

Presentation and digital poster files submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. EST on November 13, 2022.

Presentations are limited to 25 minutes, followed by a 25-minute Q & A session with the judges. Teams may choose who speaks and who doesn’t speak during the presentation. However, we encourage all team members to stand together at the front of the room during the presentation to be available to answer questions, even if they are not presenting.

Each presentation file must include a Cover Slide that includes:

• Project title
• University name
• Faculty advisor’s name(s)
• Team member’s names

Slide Readability

The presentation room may be very large. Please ensure the font on your power point is large enough for those to see from the back of the room. Take advantage of high contrast options and avoid black screen backgrounds. Emphasize slide readability, especially for significant figures/calculations. Dark videos/animations and black backgrounds do NOT typically show well in presentation settings and should be avoided.

SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT THE PRESENTATIONS

Presentations should reflect the technical papers.
If errors were discovered after the technical paper was submitted, teams should take this time to address them. Significant information discussed during the presentation that was not included in the technical paper will be penalized for scoring.

Contingency for Virtual Forum Presentations
If Covid-19 disruptions persist into Fall 2022, NASA and NIA may decide to host the 2022 BIG Idea Forum as a virtual event for the safety of all participants. In the event of a virtual forum, teams will be provided with additional instructions and formatting guidelines for their virtual presentation.

POSTER SESSION

Finalists are required to present technical posters describing their project.

Paper Poster Guidelines

Each team will be given one 6’ table on which to display their printed posters. Posters must be free standing and able to fit on this table. One free-standing tri-fold foam/cardboard poster board will be made available for each team to use at no charge. Thumbtacks and tape will also be available to secure posters to the tri-fold boards. Teams are responsible for printing and bringing their own posters to the forum, and posters should be exactly 48” x 36.”

Digital Poster Guidelines

Each team is also required to submit the digital file of their poster. Digital posters will be displayed on the BIG Idea Challenge Website, and as such, will need to follow some standard guidelines:

• Posters must be 48” x 36” (9600 pixels x 7200 pixels)
• Posters should be printed in a horizontal format
• Poster file size limit is 100MB
• Poster file should be submitted as a PDF file
• Images and graphs should be clear, legible, and appropriately sized for the poster
  • Images and graphs embedded within the poster should be “print-ready,” with a minimum DPI of 150 whenever possible
• Links or redirects in the body of their poster can be used sparingly, however, they shouldn’t be used as a way to add/supplement important information to the Technical Paper.
  • This includes redirecting to a webpage, video, or any other content.
  • Whenever possible, all content should be included in the text or directly embedded within the PDF

The Poster Session provides teams with an opportunity to expound upon important concepts in their presentations. It also allows the judges to follow up on presentations by asking additional questions for further clarification.

SUBMITTING THE PRESENTATION AND DIGITAL POSTER FILES

To upload your team’s Presentation and Digital Poster Files, please click on the button below.

Late submissions will not be accepted, and the submission form will close promptly at 4:00 PM EST. Teams are encouraged to review the Evaluation Criteria to better understand how they will be judged.

Revisions to presentation and digital poster files will not be accepted after the 4:00 p.m. deadline – no exceptions. Teams that do not submit a presentation by the deadline will be barred from presenting, and the travel portion of their stipends may be subject to return to NIA.