When NASA launches manned missions to space they have to bring just about everything along with them. You can’t reach out into space for resources when you’re cruising in orbit aboard the International Space Station, and the Apollo missions to the Moon didn’t attempt to turn anything on the lunar surface into anything useful for the trip. When NASA sends humans to Mars, that’s going to have to change.

Missions to Mars will need to be as lean as possible, meaning that using any available resources on the Red Planet will be of utmost importance. With that in mind, NASA just announced the CO2 Conversion Challenge, which asks teams of scientists and inventors to come up with a way to turn CO2 into molecules that can be used to produce all manner of things. And there’s big prize money on the line.