Lunar Mining: Designing a Versatile Robotic Mining System

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining in a simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (simulated with gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface

Lunar Mining: Designing a Robust Robotic Mining System

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface. This year, Utah Student Robotics sought to improve upon the design from last year. The 2019-2020 rover is based on proven NASA concepts, such as the RASSOR 2.0 digging drum, and the Rocker-Bogie mobility platform

Gallium Growth on Si (100)

The mission of the research conducted was to discover if manipulation of temperature, combined with varying levels of current and volts sent through a vacuum chamber, would create an ideal environment for the growth, and alteration of gallium micro dots when interacting with Silicon based samples. Results concluded that while micro growth was possible, the varying sizes, and shapes were primarily crystalline in nature and Gallium micro dots were found in far less quantities than expected. Further research to discover this phenomenon is being continued