Students Shine in Space Engineering

Why settle for a few small steps when you can robotically move lunar mountains? Just ask the award-winning rover team from the U. The Utah Student Robotics club recently returned from NASA’s Lunabotics competition at Kennedy Space Center, where they finished an impressive third in multiple categories for their design of a moon rover tasked with building berms—essentially, protective embankments—from the regolith layer of rocky debris that blankets the lunar surface.

“The task of robotically building berm structures will be important for crewed lunar missions,” explains NASA’s Kurt Leucht. “These teams are literally helping prepare for our Artemis missions to the moon.”

To mimic harsh moon conditions, the U students had to suit up in protective gear during the competition arena challenges. “We brought the heaviest robot and used it to build the biggest berm,” says Andrew Tolton, the team’s vice president, describing their “go big or go home” strategy.

But it wasn’t just about brute force. “We had many deliverables besides berm construction,” Tolton notes. Teams developed full system engineering plans, gave presentations to NASA judges, and did community outreach teaching STEM principles. Utah’s rover could even switch into autonomous mode for extra credit. The robots were also scored on efficiency, with points docked for excessive mass, power usage, and bandwidth.

The Lunabotics competition, an annual NASA-run event since 2010, engages university students in real-world challenges tied to the Artemis moon program. The U team has been a force, nabbing second place last year, while another U group won a separate NASA challenge earlier in 2023.

As lunar exploration ramps up, it’s these budding Utah engineers who could be first to get cosmic construction underway, putting their stamp on humanity’s return to the moon.