NASA reveals Lunabotics Mining Competition winners

Posted by Courtney E. Howard

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., 6 June 2011. Thirty-six teams of undergraduate and graduate students from around the world tested their robot designs in NASA’s Lunabotics Mining Competition challenge at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida from May 26 through 28. The teams remotely controlled excavators, called lunabots, to determine which could collect the most lunar stimulant, or simulated lunar soil, in a specified timeframe of 15 minutes. The first place mining competition team was Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada; whereas the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence winner was the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

Winners in other competition categories include:
• On-Site Mining Award Winners: University of North Dakota and West Virginia University
• Judges Innovation Design Award: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
• Arizona Communications Efficiency Award: Laurentian University
• Team Spirit Award: University of Alabama
• Slide Presentation Award: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
• Outreach Project Award: Montana Tech, University of Montana
• Systems Engineering Paper Award: John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark.

The competition is designed to engage and retain students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to NASA missions.