Looking For Team That Can Build Lunar Excavation System
NASA Wednesday announced the Regolith Excavation Challenge, a
new Centennial Challenges prize competition that will award
$250,000 to the winning team and has the potential to significantly
contribute to the nation's space exploration goals. The competition
is in collaboration with the California Space Education and
Workforce Institute (CSEWI).
The Regolith Excavation Challenge will award the prize money to
the team that can design and build autonomously operating systems
to excavate lunar regolith, or "moon dirt," and deliver it to a
collector.
The challenge will be conducted in a "head-to-head" competition
format in late 2006 or early 2007 and will require teams to
excavate and deliver as much regolith as possible in 30 minutes. A
detailed set of rules for the competition will be finalized later
this year.
"Excavation of lunar regolith is an important and necessary step
toward using the resources on the moon to establish a successful
base for life on its surface," said NASA's acting Associate
Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate,
Douglas R. Cooke. "The unique physical properties of the lunar
regolith make excavation a difficult technical challenge," he
added.
"This challenge continues NASA's efforts to broaden interest in
innovative concepts," said Brant Sponberg, NASA's Centennial
Challenges program manager. "We hope to see teams from a broad
spectrum of technical areas take part in this competition," he
noted.
"CSEWI is pleased to collaborate with NASA and to participate
with the Centennial Challenges Regolith Excavation Prize
Competition," said CSEWI Director, the Honorable Andrea Seastrand.
"This is a challenge that places all companies, institutions and
individuals on a level playing field, thereby widening the doors of
opportunity for technology innovators. While welcoming entities
with existing NASA relationships, this challenge stimulates and
reaches out to the nation's untapped intellectual capital," she
added.
NASA's Centennial Challenges program promotes technical
innovation through a novel program of prize competitions. It is
designed to tap the nation's ingenuity to make revolutionary
advances to support the Vision for Space Exploration and NASA
goals. NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate manages the
program.