NASA’s Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) is an initiative supporting its Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate’s (ESDMD’s) efforts to explore innovative solutions for a variety of known Human Landing System (HLS) challenge areas. Through this competition, college students contribute to the advancement of HLS technologies, concepts, and approaches. Improvements in these technology areas have the potential to revolutionize NASA’s approach to space exploration, and contributions from the academic community are a valuable part of the journey to discovery.

As human exploration pushes beyond low Earth orbit toward sustained lunar presence and future missions to Mars, the role of Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) becomes increasingly vital. Designing ECLSS for deep space is uniquely challenging due to mission duration, limited resupply, and extreme environmental conditions. This year’s theme focuses on enhancing life support functionality through more efficient hardware, quieter habitats, safer water delivery, and improved resource sharing on planetary surfaces, while considering the integrated nature of ECLSS within future exploration architectures.