Four teams of backyard inventors vied to dig as much simulated lunar soil as possible in half an hour at NASA鈥檚 Regolith Excavation Challenge on Saturday, but no one scooped up the $125,000 first prize.
The teams were trying to excavate 150 kilograms of the mock soil, or 鈥渞egolith鈥�, using no more than 30 watts of power 鈥� enough to run a refrigerator light bulb 鈥� and dump the soil in a bin. None of the teams reached the 150-kilogram minimum, but glum faces were nowhere to be found at the day鈥檚 end.
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All four teams were eager to give the contest another shot in 2008. And because future astronauts living on the Moon will need lots of water, oxygen and other resources that can be extracted from the lunar soil, the challenge allowed the NASA engineers who served as judges to see some truly 鈥渙ut-of-the-box鈥� designs for potential Moon diggers.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a dichotomy between doing stuff that鈥檚 exciting and stuff that鈥檚 safe, wise, and prudent,鈥� says Ken Davidian, manager of NASA鈥檚 Centennial Challenges programme, which sponsored the competition and put up the prize money. 鈥淣ASA has become a prudent organisation, but we鈥檙e being asked to do imprudent things. It鈥檚 very hard for us to do. These challenges are a way for us to do something high-risk, that the lawyers haven鈥檛 squelched.鈥�
Unlikely group
The Regolith Excavation Challenge was, in fact, the seventh Centennial Challenge held since 2005. So far only one person has won any of the competitions 鈥� on 3 May, Davidian had handed a $200,000 check to Peter Horner, an unemployed engineer from Maine, for his design for an astronaut鈥檚 glove (see New spacesuit glove beats NASA鈥檚, hands down). An equally unlikely group of contenders came to Santa Maria, California, hoping to emulate Horner鈥檚 success.
Geoffrey Pulk of Berkley, Michigan, whose day job is running the boiler room for a school, brought a contraption that bit into the simulated lunar soil with a buzzsaw-like rotor of steel buckets. His machine was the ultimate in low-tech design, featuring a wood frame, rollers that he bought at a bead shop, a bike chain and a conveyor belt made from his girlfriend鈥檚 old blue jeans. The whole thing, he said, was held together with 鈥渁 good deal of gorilla glue鈥�. Pulk estimated his total cost of materials at $300 to $400.
The denim conveyor belt actually drew praise from Lee Johnson of NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Lab, one of the judges. Because it sagged in the centre, 鈥淭he more you load it, the better a belt it is,鈥� said Johnson.
Little practice time
Of the remaining teams, Technology Ranch of Pismo Beach, California, was the only one to run 30 minutes on its first attempt, scooping up 75 kilograms (although 10 kilograms missed the collection box). Read more about the teams in our blog.
All of the participants said they were stymied by the lack of practice time with the mock lunar soil, which is made from basalt that is pulverised to a very fine powder and carefully designed to mimic the properties of lunar soil.
The 鈥渟andbox鈥� at the Santa Maria fairgrounds was filled with 8 tonnes of the stuff 鈥� NASA鈥檚 first shipment of new lunar simulant since the early 1990s. It was delivered only a week before the competition, and all four teams felt that just seeing how the simulant behaved in their machines would give them a huge advantage for next year鈥檚 competition.
Intended as a two-year programme, the top prize for the second year of the competition was originally going to be $250,000. But this year鈥檚 unclaimed prize will be added to it to make a total award of $375,000 in 2008. 鈥淭his competition is totally fitting the pattern,鈥� said Davidian. 鈥淣ext year I expect the number of teams to double, and next time you鈥檒l see 15 NASA engineers observing here instead of three.鈥�
