NASA & Freelancer

Crowdsourcing the final frontier
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Be part of the innovation

Freelancer.com is collaborating with NASA once again to crowdsource talent to design innovative tools and technology as part of NASA Open Innovation Services 2 (NOIS2) along with other contractors.

Hundreds of completed contests

NASA and Freelancer started working together in 2015, and have already crowdsourced solutions from 3D tools for robotic astronauts to smartwatch mobile applications used for time tracking and important station updates. Keep an eye out for future challenges, as NASA and Freelancer continue to push the boundaries of human imagination and innovation.

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Getting involved

How the challenges will work
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A talent cloud

NASA's NOIS2 will aim to crowdsource innovation through a variety of projects. Whether it's using crowd-based challenges and contests, building teams of freelance experts from around the world or splitting up complex jobs into a series of smaller freelance projects, NASA is looking to tap into the cloud of human intelligence to find new solutions to space exploration.

When will it start?

New challenges, contests and projects are on their way, and NASA is looking for skilled participants from a variety of backgrounds. Check back regularly for new opportunities.

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Media

Learn more about NASA's NOIS2 initiative

Past challenges completed here on Freelancer.com and upcoming projects to advance space exploration. More media will be added as challenges are completed, so check back soon!

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Technical Drawing of the NASA Astrobee

Astrobee Challenges Series

UPDATE: This phase of the contest has now been closed. NASA will be selecting 1000 participants for the next phase shortly.

We are asking the Freelancer community to help NASA and researchers learn how the community can help in solution evaluation. We are going to use the original solutions the community developed for the original challenges but this time we will be asking the community to help evaluate the solutions in three ways:

  • Novelty
  • Feasibility
  • Overall Quality

We are doing this to understand how the community can potentially help in the future to evaluate solutions provided for NASA engineering challenges.

If you are interested in helping with this, we will first need you to complete a registration survey. As part of that survey, you will be asked about your background, experience, and then complete a short 15 question quiz. This survey is to understand the level of knowledge you have relative to the solutions you will be evaluating. However, we are not just looking for people with experience or experts. We want a broad set of Freelancers with diversity across backgrounds, experience, and the skills test results. We encourage everyone to register.

After the registration process has completed a random set of Freelancers will be chosen to complete the evaluations of the solutions. We estimate that each selected evaluator will evaluate 10 solutions, and the evaluations should take you no more than 60-90 minutes. For this we will provide $25 USD.

Original Astrobee Challenges Series

NASA is designing a next generation robotic assistant to support astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). The assistant will fly around inside the ISS, perch on a wall-mounted handhold ("Handrail"), and orient a camera, as directed. NASA has already designed the free flyer part, called Astrobee, and had looked to the freelancer community for great solutions for an attachment and orientation arm.

Over the next several months, ~$25,000 USD will be awarded, spread over more than a dozen contests, with individual prizes ranging from $250 USD to $5000 USD. Each will ask for solutions to a particular (sometimes overlapping) piece of the attachment arm. Each contest has been defined to be solvable on its own, but you may choose to compete in as many contests as you wish. Winning solutions may be incorporated into the robotic arm design and used with Astrobee for years to come.

Technical Drawing of the NASA Astrobee

NOIS2

Design innovative tools and technology

The NASA Open Innovation Services 2 (NOIS2) would like to crowdsource talent to design innovative tools and technology. That means you can be a part of helping NASA expand its new era of space exploration on Freelancer.com. Watch this space to enter NASA contests for free.

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APPLICATIONS

Live updates and tracking in ISS

Getting live updates and tracking your time is mission critical aboard the International Space Station. Our freelancers developed smartwatch concepts and applications for Astronauts to keep the ISS operational at all times.

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ROBONAUT

Keeping ISS astronauts safe

Meet Robonaut R2, the humanoid robot who takes on the most dangerous tasks in space. For these challenges freelancers created 3D models of tools R2 uses to keep the ISS astronauts safe.

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ROBOTIC ARM

NASA selected 30 freelancers to participate in the Astrobee Robotic Arm Challenge Series

NASA used 30 freelancers to suggest designs for Astrobee's robotic arm. Freelancers helped inform the design of every component, from subsystems to electronics.

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Branding

Designing for NASA programs

Inside of NASA there are many initiatives and programs to improve space exploration and the lives of those involved. To help further this goal, our freelancers improved the branding on logos, trophies and banners used at NASA.

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Get it done

Post your contest. Easier than rocket science.
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    Post a contest

    Posting a contest is easy. Write your idea, set a budget and click post. It's that simple!

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    Get tons of entries

    You will receive lots of entries from our freelancers, giving you options to choose from.

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    Award a winner

    Rate the entries, give feedback and then award the entry you like the most as a winner.

Post a Contest