Aqualunar Challenge (UK–Canada lunar water purification prize)
Joint UK–Canada challenge prize, launched on 17 January 2024, for technologies to purify water from ice buried in lunar soil so it can be used on the Moon. UK government releases describe it as a £1.2 million international prize funded by the UK Space Agency's International Bilateral Fund and delivered by Challenge Works (part of Nesta), with half the prize total for UK-led teams and half for Canadian-led teams; the Canadian track was led by the Canadian Space Agency with Impact Canada. In the UK track, ten finalist teams received £30,000 each in 2024, and on 27 March 2025 Naicker Scientific's SonoChem System won the £150,000 first prize, with RedSpace's FRANK (£100,000) and Queen Mary University of London's AquaLunarPure (£50,000) as runners-up. In Canada, the CSA announced on 15 April 2026 that Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation won the CAD 400,000 grand prize for its LunaPure system. Entrants designed and built prototypes on Earth; none of the sources describes flight hardware.
An organization's level is recorded separately and is not a ranking of its linked missions' results. How the ladder works.
Facts
- Headquarters
- United Kingdom
- Type
- Government program
- Founded
- 2024
- Status
- Concludedas of 2026-04-15. Concluded programme. Challenge Works' Aqualunar page gives the dates 15/01/2024 - 30/05/2025 and says the challenge has been won (UK winners announced 27 March 2025); the Canadian Space Agency announced the Canadian grand-prize winner on 2026-04-15. No later round was found.
- Roles
- None stated
- Targets
- Moon
- Website
- aqualunarchallenge.org.uk
Open evidence gaps
- Who funded the Canadian half is not stated plainly: GOV.UK calls the whole £1.2 million prize funded by the UK Space Agency's International Bilateral Fund, while the CSA and Impact Canada describe a CSA-led Canadian track with prizes of up to 8 x CAD 22,500, up to 4 x CAD 105,000 and one CAD 400,000 grand prize. The UK statement to COPUOS cited in the lead says the UK 'alongside Canada' funded it but was not re-read.
- No parent organization is recorded: the UK track was funded by the UK Space Agency, which has no record in this dataset, and the Canadian track was led by the Canadian Space Agency (Canadian Space Agency); a record has one parent.
- Seed-funding timing differs: the UK Space Agency's 2025-03-27 release says the ten finalists were awarded £30,000 each in July 2024 (its 2024-07-24 release announced them), while Challenge Works says June 2024.
- The Canadian Stage 1 and Stage 2 amounts actually paid are not confirmed; Impact Canada gives 'up to' amounts, and the CSA page lists eight Stage 1 and four Stage 2 teams.
- No follow-on round, flight test or later funding for the winning technologies was found in government sources.
Sources
17 excerpts from 6 publicationsOne web address counts as one publication.
The joint UK-Canada £1.2 million Aqualunar Challenge is launching to support development of water-purifying technologies for the Moon.
The research marks the launch of the Aqualunar Challenge – a £1.2m international prize funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund and delivered by Challenge Works.
The Aqualunar Challenge will award UK-led start-ups with seed funding to develop technologies to purify ice buried beneath the Moon’s surface to make human habitation on the Moon viable.
Challenge Works and the UK Space Agency are working in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Impact Canada, to deliver the Aqualunar Challenge with half the prize total being awarded to UK-led teams, and half being awarded to Canadian-led teams.
The UK track of the challenge is awarding UK-led finalist teams £30,000 each to develop their technologies, before a winner and runners-up are announced in Spring 2025.
Naicker Scientific was awarded the £150,000 first prize, with two runners up winning £100,000 and £50,000 respectively
FRANK by father-and-sons team RedSpace and AqualunarPure from a team from Queen Mary University named runners up.
10 finalist teams were each awarded £30,000 seed funding in July 2024 to develop their technologies in pursuit of the prize and provided with a comprehensive package of non-financial support, including expert mentoring and access to testing facilities.
The Aqualunar Challenge, led by the Canadian Space Agency in partnership with the Privy Council Office's Impact Canada Initiative, called on Canadian innovators to develop solutions for purifying water on the Moon.
Following three stages of the Challenge, a jury of experts selected Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) as the grand prize winner.
The company will receive $400,000 to continue development of LunaPure.
1 Grand Prize Winner at $400,000 CAD
During the Challenge, applicants won’t be going to the Moon
Challenge launched on January 17, 2024.
This Challenge was delivered by Challenge Works on behalf of the UK Space Agency in the UK, and by the Canadian Space Agency in partnership with Impact Canada in Canada.
The Aqualunar Challenge has now been won
15/01/2024 - 30/05/2025
Cite this record
SpaceMiningData, “Aqualunar Challenge (UK–Canada lunar water purification prize)”, dataset version a00fa2c68a45, built 2026-11-11, https://spaceminingdata.com/organizations/aqualunar-challenge.html. Record checked 2026-10-30.