Rules

The placement of the rocks within the randomly selected cells will ultimately be determined by the judges before the beginning of the competition in order to fulfill the intent of the rules. There are several aspects of the rules that will need to be interpreted by the judges for the competition in order to facilitate fairness and implementation.

There have been some questions about the placement of the rocks. There are a number of statistically unlikely yet possible arrangements of the rocks that would be potentially more challenging than others for specific excavation hardware configurations. For instance, all of the rocks could be placed near the ramp entrance.

If all of the requirements, such as a random starting location and orientation, are met by the autonomous and mobile excavation hardware, secondary hardware is not required to be placed in a randomized starting location, provided that all rules are followed and all requirements are met. For instance, a stationary and passive (not powered) item that is separate from the primary hardware could be placed on the ramp or near the collector during the 5 minute set up period to simplify access or dumping.

Yes. The markers must be set up during the 5 minute period allotted for setting up the excavation hardware.

In short, no. The ramp cannot be removed from the sandbox during the Excavation Attempt. Part of the intent behind including the ramp is to drive the excavation hardware designs toward mobile systems.

The rules specify that no fundamental process may be used that is not compatible with the lunar environment. In the case of cooling fans, using a convection process in the open atmosphere does not comply with the rules because of the constant supply of air from the atmosphere in order to function. If convection is used in a closed loop system, and/or with a consumable fluid source (i.e. a tank of consumables) then it is possible to comply with the rules.

A potentially more appropriate solution is the use of a radiator for cooling. This is more typical for use on spacecraft. In addition, some interesting operational considerations arise out of using radiators in a dusty environment.

In short, no. Item 3.31 in the rules includes any kind of data stored on the excavation hardware whether by digital or other means.

The rules state "The Excavation Hardware will not push Regolith up against the wall to accumulate Regolith."

The intent of this rule also applies to pushing Regolith up the ramp towards the collector, so it is not allowable to push Regolith up the ramp or accumulate it there. The intent of this rule is to ensure that the configuration of the Excavation Hardware is adaptable for in-situ resource utilization and that the sandbox and ramp are not damaged during the excavation attempt.