Enter Engineers in NASA Competition

Auburn University has competed in NASA’s Lunabotics competition for the past 12 years. 

The goal of this competition is to build a robot that can autonomously mine for ice on an extraterrestrial surface. Gifts on Tiger Giving Day will go toward materials to build a competition field and purchase a computer so the team can run simulations of the robot.

This is incredibly important for long-term space travel. Water is very heavy and it is not feasible for astronauts to bring all of the water with them that would be needed for extended space travel. An ice-mining robot would create a water source for astronauts during extended space travel missions, allowing them to focus on other scientific endeavors. 

The University of Alabama has won the past six competitions. Auburn placed 12th out of more than 50 teams at last year's competition, and we think with the improvements being made to the robot that we have a fighting chance of beating Alabama.