Mines moon dust-moving challenge draws international competitors

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When building up an annual event, the inaugural one sets the foundation, but the second one is the all-important adhesive that the next iterations are built on.

From May 31-June 1, Colorado School of Mines cohosted the second annual Over the Dusty Moon Challenge with Lockheed Martin. College students from across the world demonstrated the moon-dust-moving designs they’ve been building since September.

e Mines team — the Rock Hoppers — and four other teams from Europe and Australia designed machinery to move moon dust, or regolith, as e ciently as possible in a set amount of time.

is nal phase of competition had teams assemble their machinery, explain it, and then use it to move the regolith both vertically and horizontally. is year’s competition had a new wrinkle, as competitors’ designs also had to remove pebbles and rocks from the simulated moon dust.

e ve teams were judged on the amount of regolith transported, system mass, energy consumed, dust tolerance and generation, autonomy, and overall performance.

SpaceTeam AGH from Poland’s AGH University of Science and Technology won rst place and a $5,000 prize.

e Aussienauts from Austra- lia’s University of New South Wales took second place and the $4,000 prize; and the multinational team Spaceship EAC placed third for the $3,000 prize.

Along with Mines’s Rock Hoppers, the MoonAixperts from Germany’s RWTH Aachen rounded out the ve competing teams in the nal phase. e challenge started in September with participants submitting their conceptual designs, and the best ones were selected to advance to the May 31-June 1 physical dem- onstrations.

As Lockheed Martin’s Kirk Shireman stated in a Mines press release: “Creating challenging, experiential educational opportunities like Over the Dusty Moon ensures we are tapping into the next generation of innovative and forward-thinking engineers, as we are one step closer to a sustainable presence on the Moon.”

For more information about the challenge, including next year’s event, visit overthedustymoon. com.