Robot Living

The journey should have ended a long time ago on Mars.  But somehow the rover Spirit has carried on.  It is now having problems with the right front and rear wheel and has been unable to move forward since December 19.

Stay up to date with all things Spirit at the website from NASA called Free Spirit.

The latest update states:

Spirit remains embedded at the location called “Troy” on the west side of Home Plate. Attempts to extricate Spirit have been complicated by the loss of functionality in the right-rear wheel and the lack of meaningful functionality with the right-front wheel.

The biggest concern is that soon Mars will be in winter and that means less sunlight for the solar panels on Spirit . 

Go Spirit!

Link via (BBC)

Tags: Mars, rover, spirit

The Regolith Excavation Challenge is now over.  The what? – You know, that challenge to see how much moon dirt a moon chucker could chuck if a moon chucker could chuck moon dirt.

Well, the winner shown here is Moonraker from Paul’s Robotics. From the Regolith blog:

The entire $750,000 prize purse for the 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge was awarded today. The winners of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were Paul’s Robotics, Terra Engineering, and Team Braundo respectively. Thanks to all who participated to make this the best Regolith Challenge yet.

See our previous post about the challenge featuring another team called  Astrobotic Technology, or click through for a video of the winner on a test run.

Link via (regolith.csewi.org)

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Tags: Moon

Le Petit Prince is a design finalist in the Electrolux Design Lab competition.

This cute robot designed by Martin Miklica, is designed to help us conquer Mars or other planets one plant at a time.

Le Petit Prince does that by wandering around and finding the best soil and nutrients for the plant it is growing.

Some day these cute little guys may help us conquer Mars.

Click through for a video.

Link via (Bot Junkie)

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Tags: Mars

Astrobotic Technology has revealed more information about its lunar rover.  This company is led by William “Red” Whitaker and hopes to win the $20 million Lunar X Prize.

Earlier this month Astrobotic Technology unveiled the Moon Digger that they hope to use to win The NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge.

The new rover will be used to travel the moon’s equator, where it gets hotter than boiling water.  The rover will keep a cool side aimed away from the sun and will generally travel east or west, but can tack north and south like a sailboat.

The robot will also serve as an internet node and be able to transmit back high resolution photographs of the moon’s surface.  It will use 2 motors with bicycle like chain drives as opposed to a motor in each wheel hub.

Link via (Space Ref)

Tags: lunar x prize, Moon, rover

Astrobotic Technology, with some help from the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon, has created a robot to compete in the The NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge.  The challenge will award $500,00 for the robot that can dump the most simulated moon dirt in 30 minutes.

Led by Dr. William “Red” Whittaker,  Astrobotics main focus is still developing a robot to win the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize. I’m sure that adding $500,000 to help win the Lunar X Prize won’t hurt one bit.

See the press release here.

The Regolith Excavation Challenge will take place on October 17-18 of this year.

Click through for a video of the moon digger in action.

Link via (Space Ref )
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Tags: carnegie mellon, lunar x prize, Moon, NASA