UBC students competed in an American space competition with their robot Miskin SR-1 MoonScraper. The remote-controlled robot is capable of transporting imitation moondust over a half-hour period (Photo Provided)

The Regolith Excavation Challenge is one of NASA’s centennial challenges aimed to develop aerospace technology. This year, each team designed a remote-controlled robot that could autonomously climb and descend a ramp at the start of the competition.

To qualify for the grand prize of $500,000 and the chance to participate in future NASA projects, robots had to transport at least 150 kilograms of imitation lunar soil in 30 minutes.

The TREAD team placed sixth in the competition, successfully excavating 43 kg of simulated regolith. Although they did not qualify for the prize, supervising Professor John Meech said he was “over the moon.”

“NASA said that if there was an award for the most innovative and creative design, we would have gotten it,” Meech said.

The robot from UBC was the smallest in the event. NASA had restrictions as to the size and weight of all entries and, according to Meech, several teams were disqualified for failing to recognize these technicalities.

The light-weight robot has been a long time in the making. After spending two and a half years planning and going through three different robots, the team finally created their perfect contender – the Miskin SR-1 MoonScraper, named after their equipment donor, Miskin Scraper Works Inc.

Determined to overcome any mishaps the TREAD team prepared rigorously for the competition.  Prior to heading south, the team ran several trial excavations, which produced promising results.

“Before we left we were digging 34 kg of sand every five minutes, which gives us around 204 kg,” said Cooper.

“We [estimated] that we [could] easily surpass the 150 kg of total excavated regolith,” Cheng said.

Despite these hopeful results, their performance depended on aspects beyond their control.

“We had a great deal of difficulty, as with many other teams, with the network configuration that NASA had provided,” said Meech.

Having lost 12 minutes from digging time to set up connections, he was surprised that their robot successfully finished the performance. “When we did move, we did really well,” Meech said.

“Success at the competition [has] a lot to do with Murphy’s Law,” Cooper said, referring to the idea that “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”