Pub. 8 2018 Issue 1

20 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY F or the fourth consecutive year, the Utah Student Robotics team (Formerly the Utah Robotic Mining Project) will be competing in the NASA Robotic mining competition. The annual event is set to host 55 collegiate teams this year and represents the efforts of more than 500 students from across the nation, who will bring their robots to the Kennedy Space Center for a showdown. Last year the competition recorded over 15,000 connections to its live-stream broadcast (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa- dlinfo), with viewership from 49 states, and 55 countries around the world. The objective of the competition is to mine icy regolith (gravel) from a simulated Lunar or Martian surface. The idea being that this icy regolith could be used to provide oxygen, water and fuel for future human colonies on the moon or Mars. Capturing this water would be critical if human occupation were to succeed at either location through the use of what has been termed, “In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)”. While the competition is designed for space, it also has real-world applications. Caterpillar is a large sponsor of the competition and actively recruits students from the best teams for internships and full-time work on automation and engineering projects. As a result of the competition, students are encouraged to come up with innovative new ways to reduce their communication and data usage, automate their robot, decrease dust, and mine greater amounts. This year, the U’s robot will be utilizing a rotating chain of slotted buckets to excavate materials for the competition. The slotted buckets will allow for regular, fine-sized, regolith to fall through while collecting the heavier, coarse-sized icy regolith. This is a dramatic re-design from the skid-steer designs of previous years, and it is the result of a change to the competition rules, where mining points will only be awarded for icy THE FUTURE IS NOW