Robots Compete To Excavate Moon Dust

Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 22 of October , 2009 at 12:23 am

In February, we posted about how the first robots back to the moon are likely going to be little earth moon movers, designed to shift large amounts of regolith (i.e. dirt) to help construct a base. Moon dirt is tricky stuff to deal with; unlike earth dirt, it’s pointy and abrasive and gets into everything. NASA has sponsored a competition for lunar robots to test out their moon dirt moving skills here on earth, and for the first time, a couple of them were successful enough to win some prize money.

The robots had to move out of a starting area, collect a minimum of 150 kilos of fake lunar regolith material, and deposit it in a container in 30 minutes or less. The winner, a ‘mostly autonomous’ robot from WPI named Moonraker, managed to dig up and deposit a staggering 440 kg of dust. All (but one) of the robots competing this year were teleoperated, but that’s something that’s almost certainly going to change.

NASA is sponsoring six other challenges to develop new technologies, each of which includes prize money of up to $2 million. I think I’ve said this before, but the return on investment that agencies like NASA and DARPA get on challenges like this is so incredibly huge (not to mention an awesome opportunity for students and startup companies) especially compared to the typical lack of efficiency that a more traditional production process tends to exhibit that I don’t understand why they don’t put more resources into them. Forget about contracts and blown deadlines and budgets… Just make everything a challenge and embrace the results.

[ Regolith Excavation Challenge ] VIA [ New Scientist ]

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2 Comments

Comment by Zool

Made Thursday, 22 of October , 2009 at 5:50 am

Thanks Evan for posting this. Its the first I’ve heard of it.

“opportunity for students and startup companies” – are these challenges open to everyone in the world, or only from the US?

“NASA is sponsoring six other challenges to develop new technologies” – That’s very interesting. Does anyone have a link to more info? (what are the challenges?) … (he says, hoping its open to people outside of the US! ;)

Comment by Evan Ackerman

Made Thursday, 22 of October , 2009 at 9:48 am

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/innovation_incubator/centennial_challenges/index.html

I don’t know about the international thing. It could be that since NASA is taxpayer funded, they might only be allowed to award prize money to US entities. However, that wouldn’t stop you from forming a partnership with a group in the US if you have a good idea…