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Next NASA Centennial Challenge Competition

Posted by Zonk on from the ready-set-space dept.

Andrew-Unit writes "NASA today announced the next competition in the Centennial Challenge series. A prize of $250,000 USD will be awarded to the team that can autonomously deliver the most lunar regolith to a collection device in 30 minutes. From the press release: 'This challenge continues NASA's efforts to broaden interest in innovative concepts ... We hope to see teams from a broad spectrum of technical areas take part in this competition,'"

5 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. The new NASA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting


    A prize of $250,000 USD will be awarded to the team that can autonomously do our job for us

  2. John Henry by lilmouse · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Have they already ruled out a guy with a shovel? I bet John Henry would break down less often, as well as maneuvering around objects more quickly.

    I know, let's put a penal colony on the moon! That way, we'd have cheap labor there, and could remove troublesome elements from our society. At least until they start raining gravity bombs on our head...

    Seriously, though, a guy with a shovel is at least a viable option. Abrasive lunar dust is gonna suck for anything out there, and spacesuits may well be cheaper then gears for robots.

    --LWM

  3. Re:Man.. I Can See Where This Is Going... by Soft · · Score: 4, Interesting
    NASA, if very, very cagey can do what they want on a pittance, letting people knock each other over trying to do for piddly prizes.

    Actually, with adequate funding, this could be a nice incentive. As Henry Spencer said:

    As I've noted before, if the government wants to put Americans back on the Moon and is willing to spend (say) ten billion to make it happen, much the most effective way is to simply announce that the next hundred Americans to walk on the Moon will each be given $100M. It will be the biggest stampede you've ever seen, and nobody will have to "oversee" anybody.
    More mundanely, consider having NASA announce that starting in 2010, each year it will buy 20 round-trip tickets to the Moon from the lowest bidder, bids not to exceed $50M/ticket. If concerned about safety, stipulate that each year, one of those tickets will be used to fly a randomly-selected senior executive of the spaceline, refusal being grounds for cancellation of the contract.
  4. Re:Surefire plan by Red+Flayer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "How about just buy a missile from DPRK, blow up the Moon and catch pieces with a butterfly net? "

    No fair, you used gravity to move the samples. I used a lasso.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  5. Re:How about a realistic mission? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    this seems a bit absurd. The old Apollo program brought enough regolith back

    Who said anything about bringing regolith back? As far as I can tell, this is about gathering lunar soil for mining the moon. To extract minerals / metals, or to make bricks. The goal will be to build things on the moon - not take more lunar soil back to Earth.

    It's easy to imagine a machine which gathers soil and dust - filters, compacts and heat-treats - then spits out some sort of brick which can be used to construct walls or help cover / bury underground living quarters. And automating this process (so robots can have built a structure before astronauts have even arrived) is going to be extremely important for permanent moon habitation.