NASA Lunabotics 2023 Competition

Long Beach Lunabotics Team was placed 14th out of 50 teams overall and second for presentation in NASA Lunabotics 2023 Competitions. For the latter placement, the team was rewarded $2,000 to aid them in the 2023-2024 competition.

“LUNABOTICS is an Artemis Student Challenge designed to educate college students in the NASA Systems Engineering Process while designing and building a prototype Lunar robot. Earth’s deep gravity well and the current level of lift vehicle technology make it necessary to excavate and extract local resources for human life support and infrastructure construction. Developing these technologies will allow humans to have a sustainable presence on the Moon and other off-world locations.

LUNABOTICS continuously improves the designs of their robots with better mechanical systems and improved sensors and autonomy software. The competition model has the rules evolving each year so the infused technology is maximized and the student experience is enhanced with continuous improvement. The robotic excavation and construction technology needed will require tele-operation and various levels of autonomy. Commercially available technology is constantly evolving with the student teams taking advantage of these capabilities to increase their levels of autonomy. In addition, each year a new group of seniors enters the competition so that there is no redundancy or duplication in student engagement.

LUNABOTICS is a college level event that supports the Artemis Moon to Mars mission requiring teams to participate in multiple events throughout the year and (if conditions allow) on-site robotic operations at the competition. The goal of this Artemis challenge is to gather and evaluate design and surface motion operational data for future Lunar robotic excavators and builders.

LUNABOTICS on-site robotic operations includes dealing with the abrasive characteristics of the Black-Point-1 regolith simulant, the weight and size limitations of the Lunar robot and the ability to autonomously or tele-operate the robot from a remote Mission Control Center.”