NASA’s Annual Robotic Mining Competition

Images Credit: www.nasa.gov

The competition requires each team of students to design and build a mining rover that can traverse a simulated Martian or Lunar terrain, excavate regolith and gravel, and deposit them into a Collector Bin within 10 minutes.

NASA's overall goal for this competition is to develop creative solutions to the problems that come with mining extraterrestrial resources. The complexities of the challenge include the unique physical properties of basaltic regolith and the reduced 3/8th gravity, which make excavation a difficult technical challenge. The abrasive characteristics of the basaltic regolith simulant, the weight and size limitations for the rover, and the ability to control it remotely also contribute to the complexity of the challenge. Dust tolerance and projection, communications, vehicle mass, energy/power consumption, and autonomy of the rover will contribute to the results of the competition.

This year, Blasterbotica will improve on last year's rover, "Jerry". Over the course of this next year, the new rover will be streamlined, updated and improved to create a much more sleeker, efficient model to satisfy the most important goal: to create a robot that can autonomously move, excavate and bring regolith to a storage bin in a Martian or Lunar environment.

For more information and specifics, please see NASA's website at:

https://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/kennedy/technology/nasarmc.html