Servo - September 2015

54 SERVO 09.2015

NASAhas put on this event for six years now, starting with only about 13 teams. Every year, the competition has grown in size, innovation, and difficulty. NASA created this competition for university-level students in order to assist them with a very real and practical issue: mining in space.

With the idea of space exploration quickly turning into space habitation, humans are going to need certain things while living on a new planet. Access to raw natural materials is among the most important aspects of living in space, right up there with access to oxygen and water. NASA wanted help with their creative and innovative process, and in 2010 enlisted the help of university students all over the country. Teams from over 20 different schools came to Cape Canaveral to check out the visitor complex and more importantly, compete. Montana State University came out on top that year winning the grand prize.

The competition has only grown since that inaugural 2010 year, with over twice the amount of teams entering this year. So, what all is there to this competition? Well, teams are doing more than sending a robot out to collect dirt.

A special material called Black Point-1 (BP-1) is used to simulate the regolith on the Moon, and is extremely fine and often difficult for wheels to maneuver in. Participating teams must navigate the arena using either wireless controls or autonomous programming. The person controlling the robot must sit in NASA’s mobile mission control cars, which could realistically be used in space some day in order to simulate an actual mission occurring on another world. The robots must then collect a minimum of 10 Kg of regolith in their two separate runs, and deposit the mined substance in a collection bin.

Although the mining portion of the competition is the one that gets the most focus, there are many other aspects of this event that must also be taken care of by the participants. Teams must do an outreach program and write a report on it. This could be anything from presenting their robot at a local elementary school to doing a small demonstration at a local library — anything that benefits the community and brings more awareness to STEM (Science,

In the blistering Florida May heat,

49 teams gathered under an air conditioned tent in the NASA Visitor Center. The sound of mechanical work and the rumble of a crowd was penetrating the hot air and escaping outside where another huge tent — this one housing an arena and bleachers — could be seen.