NASA Awards $200,000 for New Glove Design

NASA has awarded $200,000 to the winner of the Astronaut Glove Challenge, Peter Homer of Southwest Harbor, Maine, who used off-the-shelf materials to beat out other contestants and the existing spacesuit glove in tests of strength, flexibility and comfort. While the new design did not address the ability to protect against micrometeorite impacts - a feature of the existing NASA design - its dexterity separated it from the other competitors.

Gloves are said to be "possibly the most important part of the spacesuit from an astronaut's perspective. In addition to cranking levers and handling power drills, astronauts use their hands – rather than their feet – as their primary mode of 'walking' around the International Space Station (ISS)."

Other upcoming "Centennial Challenges" in the NASA series include the Regolith Excavation Challenge for the design of robotic scoops and diggers, the Personal Air Vehicle Challenge, and the Power Beam, Tether and Lunar Lander challenges.

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