Frequently Asked Questions
What is an astrobot?
What is BP-1?
What is regolith?
What is the astrobotics competition?
Where can I register to compete?
What are the rules of the competition?
Where do I find more information?
- A robot controlled remotely or autonomously
- Visual and auditory isolation from the operator
- Traverses across rough lunar terrain
- Mines Black Point 1 (BP-1) aggregate
- Traverses back across rough lunar terrain
- Deposits BP-1 into the bin at .5 meters above simulated planet surface
- Weighs no more than 80 kilograms
- Does not exceed dimensions of 1.5m long x .75 meters wide x .75 meters tall at the start of each run
What is BP-1?
- BP-1 is Black Point 1, a lunar regolith simulant found at the Black Point mine in Arizona.
What is regolith?
- The layer of unconsolidated solid material covering the bedrock of a planet
What is the astrobotics competition?
- The NASA Robotics Mining Competition is a university-level competition designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). NASA directly benefits from the competition by encouraging the development of innovative extraterrestrial excavation concepts from universities which may result in clever ideas and solutions which could be applied to an actual excavation device or payload.
- The challenge is for students to design and build a remote controlled, or autonomous, excavator that can collect and deposit a minimum of one kilogram of regolith, buried a foot under the BP-1, within 10 minutes. There are many complexities that this challenge includes: the abrasive characteristics of the simulant, the weight and size limitations of the robot, and the ability to control the robot from a remote control center, or program the robot to perform autonomously.
Where can I register to compete?
What are the rules of the competition?
Where do I find more information?