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NASA Gears Up for the Regolith Rumble
eldavojohn writes "NASA is holding another scientific challenge to see which autonomous robot can move the most regolith in 30 minutes. The finer details: 'To win the cash prizes for NASA's Regolith Challenge, teams must demonstrate fully autonomous robots capable of collecting at least 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of mock Moon dirt within 30 minutes. Whichever robot moves the most regolith over the benchmark limit, while still meeting contest specifications, wins, NASA said. But in order to compete, lunar regolith excavators must weigh less than 88 pounds (40 kilograms) and run on less than 30 kilowatts of power, according to contest rules.'"
and moves a ton of dirt? Can I enter my dog? It's pretty damn autonomous.
Monstar L
May the best rock lobster win.
It seems that, while building your robot to carry alot of dirt seems the most obvious way to move the dirt, my bet is that the winner ends up trading off some of its capacity for speed. My guess is, considering the amount of effort people put into thesee things, everyone will be doing extensive tests to see, energy lost for each journey compared to enery lost by carrying alot at the same time, then of course by carrying half the weight you need to be 4x as fast, becuase of the fact you have to make the journey there and back to collect dirt to move it.
My robot was designed to round up 130+ slaves to work in the sugar mines of our newly welcomed overlords. I dont think it works too well with regolith.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
30 kilowatts is one heck of a LOT of power to be used by something that is only supposed to mass 40 kilograms. I was unable to find the official rules, because the link on the NASA site was broken, but the challenge page gives the power limit as 30 watts, not 30 kilowatts.
Can we switch to SI now, please, and try to keep the prefixes straight?
Does anyone have a link to the terms of the competition. The posting and the article it came from both omit to say how far the rock has to be moved. I'd have thought that would have a big impact on the total energy requirement. I would also hope that the spec would have a total energy consumption target (in KWh) - rewarding the more energy efficient robots.
Wikipedia seems to disagree with you. See: article about the Pound and Avoirdupois article. It seems to have been defined as weight initially but 1 pound is now defined as exactly 453.59237 grams ... which is mass. So TFA is infact correct stating that 330 punds = 150 kg (with an error less than 0.3%).
Look a monkey!
My brain is made heavy by the mass of your post.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
weight is the combination of mass and local gravity. an earth such distinctions don't much as local gravity is pretty much the same everywhere, but local gravity on the moon is very very different. however for the purpose of the contest it's probably safe to assume they meant weighs 150kg on earth
the 330 lbs to 150 kg gives you your answer. The contest, as we're all no doubt surprised to learn, is being held on the surface of the Earth. Is there a -1 pedantic moderation option?
How about a mole in a spacesuit? :)
But seriously, it seems odd that would would want a digging robot. Wouldn't one of those ditch-digger devices suffice? They are more like drills.
:T:R:A:N:S:
This is looking like some crazy NASA soup with some Bumfights and a Six Million(?) Dollar Man mixed in, and of course a dash of government institutions realizing the power of the people and private enterprise added for good measure.
Anyways, I'm off to go print me some NASA business cards for my newfound occupation as an independent NASA contractor.
File Deletion is Murder.
No, it's the force exerted by 453.59237 grams on the surface of the earth. After all, PSI is a pressure unit.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
the moon landings. They can't even build their own robot. NASA, what a hoax!!
Well, 30 watts *is* less than 30 kilowatts. The TFS is (technically) correct.
I'm not sure where the scientific part is.
From this article,2 9/1450233
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/
Interesting...
30 Watt of power, not 30 kilowatt. RTFA!
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Those things (trenchers) are fairly lightweight in the consumer version... have to be able to be pushed by lowest common denominator of people... move a lot of dirt quickly and could easily be adapted to a mulching lawnmower type design where the dirt is shoveled into an enclosed container rather than simply spewed out the sides.
IMHO we already have equipment designs that meet this spec, minus the autonomous part. Add in an expert system and an ECU and you're done (yeah I know that's the hard part). What I'm trying to say is that TFA makes it sound like a build a better mousetrap contest when really it should be more of a vendor sourcing expedition to find a company that already makes the equipment and is willing to work closely with NASA to modify their existing tool in return for major publicity in lieu of cash.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
A small unit that places directional charges to explosively blast out portions of regolith and then gather the resulting dust/rock might be the way to go. maybe put in place a shield of some sort to further contain/direct the displacement?
would certainly cut down on the power requirements and weight of the unit itself and explosives are not very heavy but contain enormous power output.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
30 kilowatts? u crazy??? learn to read, man, it's 30 watts... an 88 pound, 30 kilowatt digging machine is simply outrageous! what, is it nuclear powered?? does it fly? LOL 30 watts, not 30 KiloWatts
remember they only have 30 watts to spend, so anything that involves a lot of accerlerating and braking is out of the question. Solution: use a conveyor belt (at least one of the entrants will). Just take tiny bites and transport it slowly to the dumpsite, but use a lot of buckets in the chain, so that the total transported load is high enough. 150 Kilo in 30 minutes means 5 kilo per minute => 10 loads of 500 gram per minute.
In fact, on another scale this is what is being done in stripmines, so you can copy part of their solution: excavators that transport the dirt with conveyors. Given the size of the sandbox with no obstacles, programming it should not be too hard.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
The pound was redefined in 1959, when your entire measurement system was converted to metric bases. PSI should now read PFSI (pound force per square inch).
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The poster is wrong! 30 Watts is the limit.
When I first read 30 kilowatts I said "300+ pounds with 3000 watts??? no problem!! You'd be talking 4000 horsepower. Your only real limitation on how much you could move would be the 40 kilogram limit.
But of course 30 Watts is much different. With a car battery based system with 13.8 volt you'd be limited to just a little over 2Amps. DC motors for the FIRST robotics competition draw far, far more than this. (300 - 500 watts peak power.)I will never live for sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
Being an orbiting planet, the regolith is never stationary, however I'll just use some TNT...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Am I the only one that thought of battle bots when they didn't RTFA?
Coming to you live from another dimension.
Since it's a contest to design something intended to operate on the lunar surface, I don't think it's at all obvious how to interpret 330 lbs.
I for one, welcome our new regolith scraping excavator overlords!
There you are, staring at me again.
it seems to me that the best entry would be an underfed child of the English proletariat. It worked in the coal mines, I say, so it can jolly well work on the moon!
That's so un-PC it just might work!
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
With 30 kilo Watts power I can move 150kg of moon rock in like 30 seconds, never mind 30 minutes. I suspect it should be 30 W not kW.
Well, 30 watts *is* less than 30 kilowatts. The TFS is (technically) correct.
Technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.
Create a simple cart, use the rest of the mass for a load of C4, and I'll bet you could move a lot of material very quickly.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
While I'm not a physicist, astro-physicist, astronomer, or have any real knowledge in the field (hey, if I'm wrong, at least I admit and accept it) - I remember reading somewhere that for low level radiation, things like certain types of clay can stop such low level radiation. Am I the only one thinking NASA wants to use the lunar dirt for at least partial shielding of a base?
Also, a base being slightly set below ground level, and even better covered by dirt, would decrease the tempurature (IIRC, this is one of the basic reasons for doing so with home-building in deserts here on Earth)...
Aside from the serious stuff, I think NASA just wants to be able to say "All your base are belong to us!" before anybody else gets a lunar base.