Call for ideas for a mechanical arm for a lunar rover

First Australian companies and innovators were challenged to design a rover vehicle that will run on the Moon.

Now a second challenge has been announced by marketplace Freelancer.com and ELO2 to design a mechanical sampling arm for the rover – the ELO2 Big Dipper Lunar Regolith Acquisition Challenge.

The Australian Space Agency, in collaboration with NASA’s Artemis program, is building Australia’s first lunar rover, with the Lunar Regolith Acquisition Challenge now open to innovators and enthusiasts.

The challenge revolves around the design of a Regolith Sample Acquisition Device, which will be responsible for collecting lunar soil samples (regolith) and transporting them to an In-situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) facility managed by NASA.

The overarching goal is to extract oxygen from the lunar regolith, paving the way for sustained human presence and exploration on the Moon and beyond.

Program Manager at Lunar Outpost Oceania and Technical Lead for ELO2 Joseph Kenrick said: “Our mission is to foster new horizons in the Australian space sector, focusing on the collaboration and projects that will help Australia build expertise and supply chains for critical technologies.

“We will build on experience and lessons learned from the development of Lunar Outpost’s Lunar Voyage 1 and Lunar Voyage 2 MAPP rovers.

“By actively contributing to NASA’s Artemis program, we are leading the way for a technology-led innovation funding model with government, industry and research partners to sustain growth in the Australian space industry.”

Challenge Information

In Phase 1 of the challenge, the objective is to design a Regolith Sample Acquisition Device that can be attached to an Australian designed rover for the collection of lunar soil (regolith) and deposit at an In-situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) facility run by NASA.

Phase 2 will provide the opportunity to integrate what is learnt from feedback and testing of Phase 1 winning designs into a set of design recommendations that will be useful for implementation.

ELO2 and Freelancer.com will provide resources to help get entrants started on a simple CAD programme so that they can share their ideas via this platform.

Prizes

Up to 10 designs will be chosen as winning submissions in this phase, to share in a prize pool of $15,000 during the first phase. Winners of Phase 2 will share in a prize pool of $3,000.

Beyond monetary rewards, winners will have the opportunity to engage with experts, have their designs showcased online and tested by groups throughout Australia.

Further reading:
The challenge to design sample collection for a lunar rover

Picture: supplied