The 2008 Regolith Excavation Challenge rules are being made available for public comment. We encourage all who may be interested in competing to give us their feedback on the rules. The rules have been modified from last year in order to incorporate feedback from the competing teams, judges, and NASA. The $750,000 prize will be decided on the same basic metrics as last year; the teams ability to excavate as much compacted JSC-1A lunar regolith simulant as possible within 30 minutes.
The most significant changes include the addition of several rules which implement a mobility requirement for the excavators. We will also more closely simulate the lunar surface by including rocks, which will be placed randomly throughout the sandbox. Based on input from NASA, the new mobility requirement better reflects the needs of the lunar surface architecture currently being designed.
