NASA 2012 Lunabotics Competition Open For Registration

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Sep 22, 2011, 09:00 ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA is accepting applications from teams of U.S. and international undergraduate and graduate students for the third annual Lunabotics Mining Competition. The event will be at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 21-26, 2012.

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Participants in the competition will design and build a remote controlled or autonomous robot, which could be used for future exploration on the moon. During the competition, the teams' designs, known as lunabots, will go head-to-head to determine which one can excavate and deposit the most simulated lunar dirt within 10 minutes.

Students must submit applications, including a systems engineering paper and an educational outreach project, by Nov. 30. Registration is limited to one team for each university campus and 10 teams per country.

The competition is designed to engage and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, disciplines critical to NASA's missions.

For information about the competition and to apply online, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lunabotics

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

SOURCE NASA