A group of mechanical engineering students from Laurentian University will compete in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition later this month.
The group is one of only two in Canada to participate in the contest, which challenges students to design and build a remote-controlled or autonomous excavator—a lunabot—that can collect and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms of lunar simulant within 15 minutes.
The contest, which is hosted by NASA and runs from May 23 to 28 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Laurentian team is comprised of Dr. Markus Timusk, assistant professor and mechanical engineering program coordinator, and fourth-year mechanical engineering students Stephane Chaisson, Drew Dewit, Greg Lakanan, Jeffrey Pagnutti, Myles Chisholm, Patrick Chartrand, Samuel Carriere and Jean-Sebastien Sonier.
“The opportunities derived from this project are truly remarkable,” Chisholm said in a press release. “The valuable experiences gained in this project will allow all of us to take away the skills learned and apply them to future jobs.”
The team has been tweaking last-minute details over the last few months, although Lakanan says very little needs to be changed.
“The design is essentially flawless,” he said in the release. “With most of the guys on our team born and raised in Sudbury and having worked in the mining industry, the concept of mining on the moon came fairly natural to us.”
The Laurentian team is the only team from Ontario to compete in the contest. The other Canadian team participating hails from McGill University.
Last winter, the team was filmed for The Discovery Channel, which featured the students working on their lunabot for a segment of Daily Plant, which aired in early May.
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