McGill LunarEx Team

Team Name: McGill LunarEx Team

Excavator Name: rEx

Team Leader: Stephen Hopkins

City, State: Cincinnati, OH

Team URL: http://lunarex.mcgill.ca

Team Background:
The McGill LunarEx Team is a group of undergraduate engineering students from McGill University collaborating to construct a fully automated lunar excavator. The team is composed of students from different branches of engineering and includes mechanical, electrical, computer engineers. With this diverse mix of students we have a wealth of innovative ideas and the engineering know-how to create the simplest working solution to the challenge.

Students involved in the project will largely be volunteering as sub team leaders or part of the construction of this machine. Acting as Team leader and Product manager is Nabil Shalabi, Mechanical Engineering. Mikael Persson, B.Eng, is the team’s Head of Mechanical Tasks and Consultant to Electrical Tasks. Stephen Hopkins, Electrical Engineering, is the Head of Electrical Tasks and official team POC and Registration Officer. Many other hard working mechanical and electrical engineers have worked intensively to turn this project to reality.

The McGill LunarEx Team has been fortunate to receive the support of McGill University’s Faculty of Engineering , McGill’s Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS), McGill’s Center of intelligent machinery (CIM), Shell Canada, and a generous motor donation from Groschopp Inc.

Why did your team decide to pursue the Regolith Excavation Challenge?
The decision to be part of this challenge was a direct consequence of McGill’s participation in the NASA centennial Space Elevator Challenge. Being part of that competition and the highly innovative environment it presented only motivated the branching out to other interesting challenges. The Regolith Excavation Challenge posed a very unique multidisciplinary problem that prompted the creation of the LunarEx Team.