NASA has commenced its 2023 NASA Entrepreneurs Challenge, a program intended to progress the development and commercialization of new technologies.

In its third run, the initiative will center entrepreneurs advancing technologies that can support the organization’s lunar exploration and climate science objectives, NASA announced from Houston, Texas on Tuesday.

The challenge is an acknowledgement of the need for innovative people in technology development, with a focus on those in traditionally underrepresented communities. To bring these individuals and their ideas to NASA, the agency is offering winning entrepreneurs up to $1 million in total prizes as well as exposure to external sources of funding and investors and insight into future opportunities to work with NASA.

Building on the two previous iterations of the program, this year’s challenge will recognize participants whose projects can further the development and commercialization of technologies and data usage in the areas of lunar payloads and climate science.

Divided into two rounds, the challenge first asks participants to deliver a pitch deck and technical white paper framing their technology concept. This phase will select 20 organizations to receive $16,000 and advance to the next round.

In round two, these competitors will provide more specific information on their idea and perform an in-person pitch at an event during the Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit and Expo in Washington, D.C. Eight winners will be chosen to receive the program’s $85,000 grand prize.

The pitch event will give finalists an opportunity to engage with key agency, military and industry leaders with connections to venture capitalists and other impact funds. In previous years, winning organizations have obtained millions of dollars in investor funds, been accepted into accelerator initiatives and secured Small Business Innovation Research Contracts after completing the challenge.

NASA is just one federal agency investing in cutting-edge space technology. For an in-depth look into the relationship between space technology and defense, the Potomac Officers Club will hold its 2023 Industrial Space Defense Summit on April 27. To learn more and register to attend the event, which will connect experts in the field for a variety of fascinating speeches and conversations, please visit the Potomac Officers Club events page.

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of defense, has reminded senior defense officials of their responsibility to safeguard classified and sensitive information and materials following reports of unauthorized disclosure of secret military intelligence.

The 2023 Wash100 awardee said in a memo addressed to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders and agency directors that failure to protect classified data appropriately is a reportable security incident.

“Unauthorized disclosure of classified information, whether intentional or unintentional, does not alter the classified nature of the information,” Hicks wrote.

The official called on troops to avoid accessing or downloading documents with classified markings from unclassified websites and refrain from discussing classified information with unauthorized persons.

“Personnel with access to classified information are trusted stewards of that information and the responsibility to safeguard classified information is a lifetime requirement for each individual granted a security clearance,” the memo reads.

The Department of Defense reported that an airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.”

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, press secretary at the Department of Defense, said DOD is working with the intelligence community and interagency partners “to better understand the scope, scale and impact of these leaks.”

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has announced a $1.5 billion grant program funded by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 to advance the deployment of open and interoperable 5G radio access networks.

NTIA said Wednesday the first notice of funding opportunity under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund will focus on projects aimed at promoting and enhancing the open and interoperable RAN research, development, testing and evaluation ecosystem.

The agency is allocating up to $140.5 million for the first tranche of grants to expand industry-accepted testing and evaluation activities and develop new testing methodologies.

Gina Raimondo, secretary of the Department of Commerce, said the Innovation Fund is a step toward securing 5G wireless networks while driving innovation in the global telecommunications sector.

“Investing in the next generation of innovation will unlock opportunities for new and emerging companies to compete in the global telecom market, strengthen our telecom supply chains and provide our allies and friends with trusted choices and innovative technologies to compete in the 21st Century,” Raimondo said.

Eligible applicants may submit proposals for the first NOFO until June 2. Grants are anticipated to be awarded in August.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched the fifth Gaea supercomputer for use in climate science research.

The C5 system was commissioned in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and will be operated by ORNL’s National Climate-Computing Research Center, the laboratory said Wednesday.

NOAA and the Department of Energy established NCRC in 2009 as part of efforts to enhance modeling and simulation capabilities for critical climate studies. Since then, the center has been installing, testing and running Gaea systems.

Gaea C5 was developed by Cray, a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, to perform twice as fast as its previous versions. Its peak theoretical performance reaches 10 million billion calculations per second in terms of exascale computing.

The ORNL team is currently addressing functional issues with C5 and has yet to open the supercomputer to NOAA users. NCRC rotates the utilization of supercomputers to prevent interrupted access to more powerful systems at NOAA, as well as to minimize costs of operations and maintenance.