Mines, Lockheed Martin to host Over the Dusty Moon student design challenge
Regolith conveyance will be key in enabling use of lunar soil for resource processing, construction, manufacturing on the Moon
Colorado School of Mines, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, announce today a new global student design challenge open to student teams from any accredited university worldwide.
The Over the Dusty Moon Challenge will address a topic of increasing practical concern as humans move toward a sustainable presence on the Moon’s surface. The challenge will task student teams to design, build and demonstrate a system that can convey lunar regolith (or soil) both horizontally and vertically. Regolith conveyance is a key technology to enable the use of lunar soil for resource processing, construction, and manufacturing on the Moon.
“This challenge builds on the rapid progress made in the field of Space Resources in recent years to address a problem of great practical significance. Being able to effectively move large quantities of regolith while minimizing the creation of harmful dust is critical to long-term human presence on the Moon,” said Dr. Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources and the Space Resources graduate program at Colorado School of Mines.
The challenge begins immediately, and international participation is welcome. The competition will take place over two phases: Phase 1 will culminate with the submission of the conveyance system design. Due Nov. 19, 2021, these submissions will be judged by a panel of experts from Lockheed Martin, Mines and the Space Resources community. The top entries from Phase 1 will be invited to participate in Phase 2, where teams will be tasked with building a prototype of their conveyance system and then demonstrating the systems on the Mines campus in June 2022.
“Our academic partnership with Colorado School of Mines is vital to advancing technology and shaping the workforce of tomorrow,” said Kirk Shireman, vice president, Lunar Exploration Campaigns at Lockheed Martin Space. “The Over the Dusty Moon Challenge will foster innovation through student engagement. We are delighted to be launching the challenge with Colorado School of Mines.”
Prizes will include cash awards and the opportunity for the top teams to present their project at the Space Resources Roundtable international conference, which will take place right after the challenge at the Mines campus.
For more information and to register for the challenge, go to: https://www.overthedustymoon.com
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Emilie Rusch, Director of Communications, Colorado School of Mines, erusch@mines.edu, 720-432-5203
Gary Napier, Communications, Lockheed Martin, gary.p.napier@lmco.com, 720-224-7955
About Mines
Colorado School of Mines is a public R1 research university focused on applied science and engineering, producing the talent, knowledge and innovations to serve industry and benefit society – all to create a more prosperous future.
