HeroX & NASA: the Lunar Loo Challenge
Client
HeroX / NASA
Year
2020
Recognition
NASA JSC Group Achievement Award
19,502people entered the challenge
The work
NASA needed a toilet that works in lunar gravity for astronauts returning to the Moon, and asked the public to design one on the HeroX crowdsourcing platform. I led the media campaign for the challenge. I named it the Lunar Loo and added a junior version for kids.
I gave each kind of newsroom its own reason to run the story, from science desks to lifestyle and broadcast. Readers acted on the coverage: 19,502 people entered the challenge, 320,165 viewed it, and 60,463 arrived through links we could trace. Media interest and participation ran at about four times NASA’s earlier Space Poop Challenge, and at the peak NASA’s communications office had more media requests than it could handle.
Coverage
2 stories · 18 placements
All 17 outlets, with links
- Forbes Space Tourism Is Getting Interesting (…And Weird)
- Business Insider NASA is offering up to $20,000 to anyone who can design a better space toilet for astronauts sent out to the moon
- The Verge NASA wants to hear your ideas for engineering the best toilet to use on the Moon
- Global News Solving the lack of toilets on the lunar surface
- Travel + Leisure NASA Wants You To Build a Toilet for the Moon in the ‘Lunar Loo Challenge’
- Futurism NASA Calls For Space Toilet That Can Handle “500g of Diarrhea”
- Interesting Engineering NASA Wants Your Help Engineering Future Moon Toilets for Prize of $35,000
- SYFY NASA is crowdsourcing designs for the space-proof toilet we’ll use on the moon
- Mashable ‘Lunar Loo’ challenge asks people to help astronauts poop on the Moon
- MSN NASA just picked a winner in its space-toilet competition. The $20,000 prize awards the best ‘lunar loo’ for moon-bound astronauts.
- Mic NASA asks public: how would you want to poop on the moon?
- Phys.org To boldly go: NASA launches Lunar Loo challenge
- Popular Mechanics It’s Hard to Poop on the Moon. NASA Wants You to Make It Easier.
- DailyMail.com NASA launches challenge to find a toilet that works on the Moon
- Universe Today Help NASA Develop a Better Space Toilet
- New Atlas NASA offering cash prizes for lunar toilet concepts
- Digital Trends NASA wants your help to design a space toilet for the moon