Designs for lunar soil sampling device revealed

Australian freelancing marketplace Freelancer.com and space consortium ELO2 announced the phase one winners of a challenge to design a sampling device for Lunar soil, known as regolith.

The ELO2 Big Dipper Lunar Regolith Acquisition Challenge was set up to identify designs of a Regolith Sample Acquisition Device, a crucial component of a proposed Australian lunar rover.

The Australian Space Agency, in collaboration with NASA’s Artemis program, is embarking on an ambitious journey to design Australia’s first lunar rover.

The sampling device will be responsible for collecting regolith and transporting them to an In-situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) facility managed by NASA.

Phase 1 design winners announced today were awarded $2,100 in prize money:

• BICEP, team lead: Daniel Ricardo, Melbourne
• KANGA, team lead: Chris van Dijk,, Adelaide
• And ROMEO, team lead: Jason Abi Chebli, Melbourne, Australia.

ELO2 Technical Director Joseph Kenrick said: “We are impressed with the number and quality of submissions we received in Phase 1.

“The different perspectives and insights from the teams is helping inform our own designs for the regolith acquisition device.”

As Phase 1 concluded, the project team organised workshops on the designs aiming to gather data and feedback, laying the foundation for Phase 2.

Now in Phase 2, participants will leverage insights gleaned from the winning designs to craft a comprehensive set of tangible design recommendations for future lunar rover implementations.

Second place winners were ARC, team lead: James Gray, Adelaide, BLEW, Matthew Reimers, Sydney and Super Duper Lunar Scooper, Jack Hammonds and Andrew Hammonds, Shellharbour.

Third place winners were Central rotating drum with rear tyres, Robert Graham, Melbourne, E.L.R.A.S, George Polyzos,, Geelong, QRAS, Vivek Nayak, Parramatta, and Venna, Anay Ashwi, Melbourne.

Further reading:
for-a-lunar-rover”>The challenge to design sample collection for a lunar roverELO2 to unveil its moon rover candidate today

Image: Freelancer.com