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Moon-Excavation Robots Face Off
avishere writes "Student teams designed and built robotic power-lifters to excavate simulated lunar soil (a.k.a. 'regolith') earlier this month, with $750,000 in prizes up for grabs. Excavating regolith, according to NASA, will be an important part of any construction projects or processing of natural resources on the Moon. Interestingly, regolith is especially difficult to dig because its dust particles want to stick together. The whole robotic system has to be sturdy enough to scoop moon dirt and powerful enough to move through the dust while still meeting the weight requirements. The winning excavator, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, lifted 1,103 pounds within the allotted time, and got its creators a sweet $500,000 for their troubles."
Caterpillar aka. CAT machinery is pretty efficient at that.
I am wondering if the money being spent on a manned space program is just wasted. With the davances in robotics, we could be scooping up Martian soil, Europan ice, and goo from Saturn's moons and bringing it home for a fraction of putting a man on Mars.
Unless we get volunteers for a one way manned Martian mission, I think the money should be put into advanced robot probes.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
The moon challenge is cool-- and it's great to see students compete (this is something we really need)-- but what I really love is the lunar lander challenge (also previously featured on /.). Seeing videos like this one just thrill me. The real problem with spaceflight has been that some time back in the '50s it moved the ability of individuals and small groups to participate in, and I just love that idea that real experimental rocketry is coming back.
Rocket Ship Galileo, let's do it!
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
An honorable mention was given to a moon walking redneck with a shovel and a fish bowl on his head. Although the entry wasn't a true robot and was disqualified they felt the idea of sending him to the Moon had merit so he was given the special award and encouraged to keep trying to make it to the Moon.
But what about moon-riot control? Hopefully those lifter-bots are programmed with empathy towards the moon-hippies that chain themselves to their moon rocks. I wonder if there will be an Earth movement along the lines of, well, I guess, 'Grey-Peace' moon hippies against what ever strip-mine ore acquiring process that is eventually developed.
If a Molotov cocktail is thrown in space, does it make a noise?
Only Al Gore will know.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
There's no mention of the additional challenge presented by the mechanical properties of lunar regolith. Since there's no wind or liquid water, the grains of "sand" have been formed only by breaking up larger pebbles and have not been eroded since, so they're rather jagged and very abrasive.
In other words, imagine your garden-variety backhoe or skid loader digging through finely ground glass - you'll pray to @DEITIES for its gaskets and bearings.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Regardless of the speed and mass abilities of the excavators, I'd be interested in seeing a system that can excavate, process, and create something from simulated regolith in a high-static, near-vacuum environment.
Specifically, I recall seeing articles about how it might be easy to create low-efficiency solar cells and a form of concrete from regolith.
Assuming that works, I'd like to see a 'bot that can dig up some regolith, make a concrete igloo big enough to be useful, and cover it and the surroundings with solar cells. I suppose we're decades away from that...
hang on, to your belief system, should it be working thus far?
Buncha ugly dirt-shoveling heaps of metals.
"Moon excavation robots rip their face off"
Which would have been a much more fun way of competing.
The dwarves at Dwarf Fortress are fairly efficient and can be remotely controlled from already existing software!
The winning excavator from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts lifted 500 kilograms within the allotted time.
[The article lists all weights in kilograms]
I come here for the love
That's exactly what we all thought in 1969....
It might not be that easy. Static makes that dust stick, plus it is also flowing constantly, meaning that it just keeps trying to accumulate even as you are attempting to blow it off. You'd have to figure out something to counteract that, gas jets might not be enough. The Apollo astronauts noted it got everywhere as soon as the hatch opened.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#Moon_fountains_and_electrostatic_levitation
Although these levitating jets seem to open up an area for exploration into alternative power sources.
I think eventually they'll be forced to provide flexible coverings for all outside moving surfaces, as in no exposed joints at all, and just accept parasitic fast wear-out of those that have to be exposed, the wheels and axles, etc. All the vehicles will need to be skinned as much as possible, not bare bones moon buggy looking. That works short term, but I really doubt it for extensive colonization and construction/working/mining.. That's going to require some serious advances in materials science, flexible and tough stuff that will work from -OMG that's freekin' cold, to +EgadsBoiling temps.
A self-suffiicient moon colony is our first step towards ensuring our survival in case of an environmental catastrophe on earth. To me, this goal would be most efficiently advanced by an autonomous excavation device that could dig us a moon colony that by being underground would effiiciently protect us against cosmic rays. The design of this colony could be further refined after stage 1 colonization to make it self - sufficient. Placing this colony in an area of the moon just over the border of the sunlit area would teach us how to extrapolate this type of colony to the deeper reaches of the solar system, but if a hydro rich area could be found on the side of the moon facing the earth the safety advantage of that location would be more important for us to start a colony. In short a device that could efficiently bore out underground rooms for humanity on the moon is absolutely necessary for us to colonize not only the moon but most other bodies in the solar system. This project should receive a high priority in the funding equation.
Earth pounds or lunar pounds? Seriously, when are NASA going to stop dicking around with English units and switch to Metric - like the English use.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Now we just need a Sam Bell. And a GERTY
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
"regolith is especially difficult to dig because its dust particles want to stick together"
This is not why it's difficult to dig. Regolith is the exact same dust and sand that you see here on earth...before it was broken down by mechanical weathering. You start with rock, big rocks. Over time these break down into smaller and smaller rocks and then finally you get sand like you'd find on a beach. On the moon you have amazingly sharp, tiny rocks. This is because there's no process to weather them down into smooth particles. Thus, you end up with what basically amounts to crushed diamonds. They're sharp, jagged, tiny rocks.
This makes particles "lock" together when you step on them and such. This is why the footprints from the first moon landing are visible. It's very crisp and detailed because the regolith "locks" or meshes together so well. It didn't move since then because there's no wind, rain, etc. to destroy it. But the particles do not "stick together" as if they were all made of magnets or something, as the summary implies.
The reason it's hard to dig is because it literally shreds anything you put up there. Sand in a bearing here on earth is difficult enough to deal with. Now imagine hard, very, very, sharp sand. Basically, the difference between a rock in your shoe and a razor blade. You can't wash this stuff off (you're on the fucking moon), and it gets EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING. Keeping regolith off a robot is like trying to jump in the ocean without getting wet.
The consequence of this is obviously that anything you send to the moon is going to last a lot shorter than it will here on earth. Here on earth you fix something when it breaks. You take your car to the mechanic and they take out their tools, replace broken parts, fix others, etc. But this is on the moon. To fix something there you'd have to fly up spare parts, tools, and the labor. This labor requires either power (robots) in which case you need a lot of electricity, or power and air, food, water, shelter (humans), in which case you're flying a lot of shit up to the moon just to fix a couple robots.
It's all an amazingly large pain in the ass, but none of it is because the regolith "sticks together" is all because it "shreds fucking everything".
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