A Virginia Tech team is currently competing against U.S. and international undergraduate and graduate student teams in the third annual Lunabotics Mining Competition. The event is being held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida this week, May 21-26.
Virginia Tech’s “LARR-E” will take part in the competition. The teams had to design and build a remote controlled or autonomous robot. Some of the concepts could possibly be incorporated into the design of future NASA robots.
Kevin Shinpaugh, director of the information technology and computer services of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, serves as the faculty adviser to the team consisting of students from aerospace, mechanical and mining engineering.
During the competition, the teams’ designs, known as lunabots, will go head-to-head to determine which one can excavate and deposit the most simulated lunar dirt within 10 minutes.
The competition is designed to engage and retain students in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) which are disciplines critical to NASA’s missions.
Highlights of the competition will air on NASA Television’s Video File on NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video.
Images will be posted on Kennedy’s Media Gallery.
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For more information about NASA’s education program.
Media Contact:
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
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