Eight Teams Taking Up ESA's Lunar Robotics Challenge
AlphaGalileo (07/02/08)

As interest in exploration of the Moon soars among the world's space agencies, ESA, through its General Studies Programme, has challenged university students to develop a robotic vehicle that is capable of working in difficult terrain, comparable to that found at the lunar poles. Eight university teams have been selected to proceed to the design stage of ESA's Lunar Robotics Challenge. ESA's first Lunar Robotics Challenge got under way in late March with the issuing of an Announcement of Opportunity that invited teams of university students to create an innovative, mobile robot capable of retrieving samples from a lunar-like crater. Eight of the submitted proposals have been selected for funding after evaluation by a team of ESA experts. The selected student teams received the go-ahead to design their robotic systems, and eventually build them to compete in the challenge event. The proposals had to describe the design of a vehicle capable of retrieving soil samples from a crater, and an associated remote-operation workstation. The vehicles are required to weigh no more than 100 kg, consume no more than 2 kW of power, and occupy a volume of no more than 0.5 cubic meters with deployable appendages stowed. The robot's test mission includes objectives such as moving from a "landing site" to the rim of a lunar-like crater descend into the crater and negotiating an incline of up to 40 degrees. The vehicle will be remotely operated by a workstation placed outside the crater and with no direct visibility of the crater or rim.
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