Teams

Teams

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Teams currently registered to compete in the Regolith Excavation Challenge:

25 Teams Registered

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Team registration has closed, and there are a total of 25 teams currently registered to compete in the 2008 Regolith Excavation Challenge. There was a nice write-up about it in Sat-News Daily yesterday.

McGill LunarEx Team

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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.

Next Step Robotics

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Team Name: Next Step Robotics

Excavator Name: AME (Autonomous Mobile Excavator)

Team Leader: Marc Ciupitu

City, State: Houston, TX

Team Background:
The Next Step Robotics team was loosely formed in the summer of 2007, shortly after the completion of the last Lunar Regolith Challenge competition. Creating an autonomous robot to excavate lunar regolith, with a nice prize for a successful run, sounded like an interesting challenge, and the team members began meeting, talking and conceptualizing ideas in the fall of that year. The decision to formally enter the competition was made in the spring of 2008.

Paul's Robotics

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Team Name: Paul's Robotics

Excavator Name: Moonraker

Team Leader: Paul Ventimiglia

City, State: Worcester, MA

Team Background:
I am a Robotics Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). I am involved heavily with Battlebots and FIRST robotics all year long. My sponsor, Tom Gravel at Hydro-Cutter.com, has proven essential in producing many 2D parts with a waterjet. I am the principal designer and fabricator, but have several close friends assisting me with the electrical and programming aspects of the robot.

Why did your team decide to pursue the Regolith Excavation Challenge?

Team Waldbaum

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Team Name: Team Waldbaum

Excavator Name: Stephanie Penera

Team Leader: Sam Waldbaum

City, State: Sunnyvale, California

Team Background:
I am a one man team spending too much time in my garage and too much of my own money on this competition. I have competed in a different robotics competition, Roborodentia, the last four years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and finally won it this April. After that, I heard about the Regolith Excavation Challenge and couldn’t resist taking it on as my next competition. Although I will have only 9 weeks from my start date until the competition, I am confident I can put together a competent robot.

Why did your team decide to pursue the Regolith Excavation Challenge?

20 Teams Competing in Regolith Challenge

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Washington, DC – The California Space Education and Workforce Institute and California Space Authority announced today during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters that 20 teams have registered to compete in the 2008 Regolith Excavation Challenge. The teams competing for the $750,000 prize purse hail from 12 states and represent a variety of backgrounds; including universities, seasoned private sector robotics teams, and industry based competitors. The Challenge event will take place during August 2nd and 3rd on the campus of challenge co-host California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo College of Engineering.

You can click here for more information about individual teams. It is now possible to leave comments. Feel free to cheer on your favourite team.

Full Press Release

LunOrediggers

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Team Name: LunOrediggers

Excavator Name: LASER (Lunar Application of Science and Engineering Rover)

Team Leader: Mark Gefreh

City, State: Golden, Colorado

Team URL: www.csmnerds.org

Team Background:
The LunOrediggers are a group of 17 students from the Colorado School of Mines. All of the students are strongly motivated by desire to take part in the next space revolution. Our team has a diversified backgrounds and representing 8 different majors on campus and ranging in age from sophomores to graduate students. Our goals include, researching lunar technology and developing undergraduate student opportunities in an engineering environment. Our group is supported on campus by the Center for Space Resources. Our group started building a lunar excavator prototype in 2006. That project has transformed into our entry into the 2008 Regolith Excavation Challenge.

Green Cheese Solutions

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Team Name: Green Cheese Solutions

Excavator Name: BESSie

Team Leader: Ellen Crain

City, State: Hudson, Wisconsin

Team Background:
We are a husband and wife team working in our basement. Ellen is a Mechanical/Materials Engineer formerly employed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center working in research and development for Seawolf and NSSN class submarines. Ellen is homeschooling their 3 children. Steve is an Electrical Engineer who cut his teeth as a part of a university solar car team. From there he spent a decade as chief electrical engineer for an electric vehicle start-up. He currently works for McMillan Electric of Woodville, WI designing high efficiency, eco-friendly motors and controls. He holds three patents in the field of electronically commutated motors.

Why did your team decide to pursue the Regolith Excavation Challenge?

ToyGarden inc.

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Team Name: ToyGarden inc.

Excavator Name: mReX

Team Leader: Charles Sink

City, State: Friday Harbor, Washington

Team Background:
Passion for what is on the leading edge of being possible is what ToyGarden is all about. For nearly 20 years Charles Sink has provided expertise in the development and fabrication of complex preproduction prototypes for the toy industry. Benefiting from a long history of mechanical design, fabrication, electronics development, and micro processor integration in robotic toys, mReX (mass Regolith eXcavator) is well on its way to being a very strong contender in the Regolith Excavation Challenge.

Why did your team decide to pursue the Regolith Excavation Challenge?

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