Two female students win NASA's Moon Digging Robot Design Contest

NASA selected two female students from 2,300 whose designs entered the competition as winners of the Lunabotics Junior Competition, the US national competition for students about the Artemis missions.

Entrants were tasked with designing a robot to dig and move soil or weathering strata on the Moon, from the region of the Moon's South Pole to a container near the future Artemis Moon base.

The two winners of the Lunabotics Junior competition were Lucia Grisanti, representing grade 5, and Shriya Sawant representing students from grades 6-12.

Shriya Sawant, 15 years old from Cumming, Georgia, USA is the winner of the competition in grades 6-12 with the design of RAD: Regolith Accretion Device. Lucia Grisanti, 9 years old, from Toms River, New Jersey, USA won the 5th grade with the design of Olympus. Each robot has successfully completed its mission of collecting and transporting land on the treacherous lunar terrain.

National winners from each grade level were selected from approximately 2,300 entries. The two awardees were able to chat online with Janet Petro, Director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which will launch the next astronauts to explore the Moon.

To prepare to return to the Moon, NASA needs to build a base out of concrete on the Moon; water extraction to use for rocket fuel; and extract possible metals or minerals. The competition asked students to consider factors unique to the lunar environment when imagining their designs. Nearly 500 educators, professionals and space enthusiasts served as volunteer judges to grade entries.

Little Sawant has designed an autonomous robot that uses drums to excavate soil in an innovative way. The schoolgirl's design tackles the challenges of reducing gravity on the Moon, lunar dust pollution, navigating rough terrain, and ensuring the robot stays balanced during excavation and transport.

Grisanti's solar-powered robot will use spiked wheels to walk across the surface of the Moon and shovel dirt into a cone to separate large rocks from the dust. She named it Olympus, after the house of Apollo and Artemis in Greek mythology, which is also the name of NASA's original and current Moon exploration programs.

Through the Artemis Student Challenge, NASA is welcoming the next generation of explorers - the Artemis Generation - to learn more about the mission that paved the way to the first woman and first person of color to go to the Moon. . Together with commercial and international partners, NASA will establish a sustainable presence on the Moon in preparation for missions to Mars.

"Looking at the designs these students have submitted for Lunabotics Junior, it's impossible not to be excited about the future of the Artemis Generation," said Mike Kincaid, deputy director of NASA's Office of STEM Engagement. Creativity and enthusiasm shine through in their ideas in robots capable of mining the lunar soil'.