Two teams claimed $250,000 and $100,000 prizes for besting NASA's current top glove design

Astronaut Glove, First Place Peter Homer demonstrates his first-place astronaut glove for a better NASA future NASA

Glove designers walked away with a total of $400,000 in prize money at NASA's second Astronaut Glove Challenge yesterday. The U.S. space agency awarded the money because the private glove designs beat the in-house version, and NASA may incorporate the designs into the Constellation spacesuit intended for next-gen astronauts returning to the moon.

Peter Homer of Maine took the first place prize of $250,000, based on a souped-up version of his glove design that won the 2007 challenge. Ted Southern of New York City won the second place prize of $100,000.

Astronaut Glove, Second Place: Second place winner Ted Southern watches his glove during the burst test.  NASA

Both winners had to use their gloves within a sealed testing environment, and perform half an hour of exercises such as pinching, gripping, and other finger-flexing tests. Judges scored the results during the live tests at the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville, Florida, Technology Review reports.

Each glove also passed a burst test inside the water-filled box. Homer's glove managed to reach a max of 20 psi, and Southern's glove successfully resisted 17 psi.

The Astronaut Glove Challenge comes as part of NASA's Centennial Challenges, which include the space elevator games and a competition for lunar robot diggers.

[NASA]

2 Comments

Why are we not using gloves that use robotics? like I move my finger sensors translate movement into commands and the robotic glove moves its finger? what would this mean? Smaller more precise hand/finger capability, possibility of satellite link from the ship or earth.

honestly you would think nasa would have better things to spend 400,000$ on.



Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Grab the Tech Buyer's Guide iPhone App

Carry everything you need to make a smart buy on HDTVs, cameras and 14 other product categories right in your pocket



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed



Become a Fan On Facebook

Share links with friends, comment on stories and more


February 2010: Renovating America

Innovative fixes for five of the country's biggest infrastructure messes, plus a look the quest to read the human mind, the LCD screen that might finally kill paper dead, and the world's scariest science.

Read the issue here.

Popular Science Photo Pool


Share your photos in the Pop Sci pool at www.flickr.com!