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NewswireTODAY - /newswire/ -
Santa Maria, CA, United States, 2008/06/27 - New Mexico company sends unique product to quench thirst of teams competing in the lunar excavation competition and NASA's prize of $750,000.
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California Space Education Workforce Institute (CSEWI) and the California Space Authority (CSA) announced today that Microgravity Enterprise, Inc. (MEI) will provide Space2O—a bottled space water product—for participating teams in the 2008 Regolith Excavation Challenge, a national competition involving 25 teams from across the U.S. The event requires teams to build an effective roving lunar excavator that collects and places into a collector 150 kg of lunar simulant within 30 minutes for eligibility in winning NASA’s $750,000.
“The Regolith Excavation Challenge invites innovation” says Darryl Hupfer, MEI’s VP for Marketing working with vendors and distributors, “and that resonates with our own drive for innovative consumable space products. MEI wants our Space2O at the regolith competition to express our support for the participating teams and their inventive spirit.”
Space2O—is an innovative bottled water product that uses ingredients launched and retrieved from space. On every commercial space flight, MEI donates “free payload space” to educational organizations ranging from K-20 as part of their ACCESS for Education Foundation, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization that provides educational and public outreach associated with space research, development and commercialization.
“MEI recognizes the history-making significance of this event,” adds Linda Strine, MEI’s VP of Strategic Development. “It’s a perfect match to have Space2O’s first appearance at one of NASA Centennial Challenges, and it is consistent with MEI’s drive to support education and future space development.”
NASA’s Centennial Challenges are a series of competitive prize competitions that invite the innovative input and design from U.S. citizens to advance NASA’s space exploration goals. Peter Homer, an engineer, was the first Centennial Challenge prizewinner at the 2007 Astronaut Glove Challenge. Organizers of the 2008 Regolith Excavation Challenge have high expectations that more winners could emerge from their competition and has seen a significant rise in team registrations with most coming from university students and the private sector.
Co-hosted by CSEWI (csewi.org), its sister organization CSA (californiaspaceauthority.org), and California Polytechnic State University, College of Engineering San Luis Obispo, the Regolith Excavation Challenge is drawing attention from notable media such as Canadian GalaFilm, Inc., LAUNCH Magazine in New York, Lars Larson Talk Show based in Portland, Planetary Society Radio based in Los Angeles, and The Space Show based in Seattle. Major sponsors of the event include California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency (BTH), Diani Construction, and Empirical Systems Aerospace. The two-day event is open to the public.
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matt.everingham[.]californiaspaceauthority.org 
