Lolan Naicker and his teammate are flying high after they placed first for their invention - on producing clean water on the moon as part of the Aqualunar Challenge. They won £150 000 in prize money.
Naicker, who was raised in Chatsworth and now calls Tetbury in Southwest England his home, said the £1.2 million challenge tasked innovators, engineers and scientists to develop new technologies that would provide a permanent crew base on the moon with reliable water supplies.
He said the project was a collaboration between the United Kingdom and Canadian space agencies.
Last July, 10 finalists from the UK received seed-funding of £30 000 each to develop their ideas. In March this year, three teams were named the winner and runners-up.
Naicker, the owner and technical director of Naicker Scientific LTD based in Gloucestershire, said together with his colleague and teammate, Dr Ciarán Callaghan, they developed the SonoChem System for the challenge.
The team was recently announced as the winner of the UK-leg of the challenge and were awarded the £150 000. The two runner-up teams won £100 000 and £50 000, respectively.
Naicker said his invention used microwaves and ultrasound to purify frozen lunar water by creating millions of microbubbles that expelled impurities.
“Imagine digging up the soil in your back garden in the middle of winter and trying to extract frozen water to drink. Now imagine doing it in an environment that is -200°C, a nearly perfect vacuum, under low gravity, and with very little electrical power.
"That’s what we will have to overcome on the moon. If we can make the SonoChem System work there, we can make it work anywhere, whether that’s on Mars’ glaciers, or here on Earth in regions where accessing clean water is still a challenge.”
Naicker said the system employed a groundbreaking core technology to purify water derived from lunar ice.
“Harnessing powerful sound waves, it spontaneously forms millions of tiny bubbles in contaminated water. The extreme temperature and pressure created within each micro bubble generates free radicals (unstable atoms which are highly chemically reactive), which effectively removes contaminants.
“It was an intense six months trying to solve this problem of how to clean up frozen lunar water, and the company was going up against strong competition. However, it feels great to have this pay-off. The win is a financial one, and it will be reinvested into the company to evolve and grow it to do greater things."
The 43-year-old said his parents encouraged him and his siblings to always work hard.
“They both worked hard to try to get ahead in their lives, having started from humble beginnings. My siblings and I saw this growing up, as well as the sacrifices made to give us more options than they had growing up. I can still hear them saying this in my head, ‘be the best at what you do, whatever it is’. I listened, and ended up doing well at school."
Naicker, who matriculated at Chatsworth Secondary School, acquired various degrees, including his BScEng chemical engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, BSc physics at Unisa, and BScHon in theoretical physics at the University of Cape Town. He also graduated with his MSc in astronautics and space engineering at the Cranfield University in UK.