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AssetID: 40389878

Headline: NASA Are Asking For Help To Design a Robot to Dig on the Moon

Caption: PICTURE SHOWS: A team from the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab tests the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR) in the regolith bin inside Swamp Works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 5, 2019. ... (More copy: info@cover-images.com) NASA on Monday (16 Mar) has asked the public to help design a new bucket drum for a moon-digging robot. Digging on the Moon is a hard job for a robot. It has to be able to collect and move lunar soil, or regolith, but anything launching to the Moon needs to be lightweight. The problem is excavators rely on their weight and traction to dig on Earth. NASA has a solution, but is looking for ideas to make it better. Once matured, robotic excavators could help NASA establish a sustainable presence on the Moon under the Artemis lunar exploration program, a few years after landing astronauts on the surface. Engineers have tested various configurations of a Moon-digging robot called RASSOR – short for Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot – in a large lunar simulant sand box at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Now, NASA is asking the public to help design a new bucket drum, the portion of the robot that captures the regolith and keeps it from falling out. The regolith can then be transported to a designated location where reverse rotation of the drum allows it to fall back out. NASA’s RASSOR Bucket Drum Design Challenge is open through April 20, 2020. A total of $7,000 will be awarded for the top five submissions.

Keywords: odd; oddity; offbeat; weird; amazing; interesting; cool; science; tech; technology; space

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